The Fight Continues ~Evil Returns~
by Yuffie-chan
Summary: My lil' version of a sequel to Final Fantasy VII! It seems that hell has returned with a brand new threat
1. Prelude ~Will You Be My Superman?~

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Well wut do ya know? My very first real fanfic thatz not meant entirely on humor! ^-^ wheee! Anyway, this is a C+T(Cloud n Tifa) fic.. Sorri Aeris fans she doesnt get ressuructed. Let my story begin! \^o^/  
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PRELUDE-  
STORY TEASER:  
  
(A beach at sunset. Seagulls can be heard squawking in the background, along with the roar of the waves. The whole place is deserted. Except for one figure, which stands near the water. She starts walking to it. As she slowly walks towards the water, heart beats could be heard, louder then anything else. She steps into the water, and then stops when it gets knee-high. She slowly brings out her hand, arm and all, and holds a glowing orb. A materia. Then it flashes and she drops it into the water and the screen goes black)  
  
(After a few seconds, the title appears on the black screen as if being typed by a type writer)  
  
BASED ON FINAL FANTASY VII BY SQUARESOFT  
  
(whoosh!)  
  
A FANFICTION LIKE NO OTHER  
  
(whoosh!)  
  
WRITTEN BY MOUSIE  
  
(whoosh!)  
  
THE FIGHT CONTINUES  
~~  
SHINRA'S RESSURUCTION  
  
(whoosh! XD)  
  
(The song, Kryptonite by 3 doors down cues in. A man with crimson-red hair with a small pony tail in a navy blue uniform can be seen, walking in the streets of Midgar. Only his back is shown. As he walks, laughtor, talking, and shouting echos throughout the screen, and then when the song's vocals cue in it shows the profile of his face, he has a cigarrette in his mouth, and he doesn't look too happy, perfectly sober.)  
  
SONG:I TAKE A WALK AROUND THE WORLD TO EASE MY TROUBLED MIND.  
  
(Scene flashes to Rufus, who opens his eyes. He is in the underground sewers that used to be Midgar's subway course, laying on his back, and looking pretty tattered up)  
  
SONG:I LEFT MY BODY LAYING SOMEWHERE IN THE SANDS OF TIME.  
  
(Scene flashes to Vincent. He is on top of the Nibelheim roof, lightning flashing in the background, just like his original Square CG picture)  
  
SONG:WELL I'D WATCH THE WORLD FLOAT TO THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON  
  
(Scene flashes to Cloud and Tifa, looking hopelessly out of the Highwind window while Midgar gets destroyed by Midgar)  
  
SONG:I FEEL THERE'S NOTHING I CAN DO.....  
  
(Scene cuts to Red XIII, sitting right in front of the fire in Cosmo Canyon. Then to Reeve at a computer, controlling Cait Sith, then to Barret slamming his mighty fist onto a table, shaking everything on it, and then it cuts to Cid flipping a whole bunch of switches on a plane control pad)  
  
SONG:I DON'T REALLY MIND WHAT HAPPENS NOW AND THEN...  
  
(Scene cuts to Yuffie, glaring at Reno at the Wutain statues when she was almost raped by Don Corneo. Then it cuts to her passing him on the streets of Midgar, returning the same glare, then it goes to Reno grabbing her by the shoulders and thretening her with his electro-mag rod)  
  
SONG:AS LONG AS YOU'LL BE MY FRIEND AT THE END!  
  
RENO:Yuffie! DON'T tell AVALANCHE that we were here. Stupid kid, if you say ONE word..!!  
  
YUFFIE:(horrified)...I... I promise I won't! Now leave me alone!  
  
ELENA:Why the hell are we trusting this brat?!  
  
RENO:If she doesn't succeed then she must have a death wish...  
  
(Yuffie shoots him another cold glare. Now AVALANCHE is shown fighting Emerald WEAPON, Cid stabs it, Cloud slashes it, Tifa punches it, Barret shoots at it, along with Vincent, Cait Sith yells orders to its' mog, Red XIII casts fire on it, and Yuffie unleashes her Doom Of The Living limit break)  
  
(Cloud is shown having another one of his gone-psycho minutes and he falls to the floor on his knees, clutching the sides of his head, screaming in pain, but his voice is drowned out by the music)  
  
SONG:YOU CALL ME STRONG YOU CALL ME WEAK  
  
(Scene flashes to Tifa looking worridly at Cloud when he was under mako poisoning and he was in the wheelchair)  
  
SONG:BUT STILL YOUR SECRETS I WILL KEEP  
  
(Scene goes to the Nibelheim flashback when Tifa was being slashed by Sephiroth, and then Cloud picks her up after taking the SOLDIER helmet off, and sets her down next to Zack, and he grabs his sword and runs after Sephiroth up the stairs)  
  
SONG:YOU TOOK FOR GRANTED ALL THE TIMES I NEVER LET YOU DOWN  
  
(Scene goes to the part where Corneo has Yuffie and Elena strapped to the face of Da Chou and then Reno pushes Don off of the statue, and then looks at Yuffie with an "I told you so" look on his face and Yuffie just looks at him in disbelief)  
  
SONG:YOU STUMBLED AGAIN, AND BUMPED YOUR HEAD, IF NOT FOR ME THEN YOU'D BE DEAD  
  
(Scene from the ending of FFVII where Cloud catches Tifa and lifts her back up onto the rocks in the Northern Crator)  
  
SONG:I PICKED YOU UP AND PUT YOU BACK ON SOLID GROUND  
  
(While the chorus goes, the next various scenes flash on and off: Cloud having another psycho moment, Barret preforming his Big Shot limit break, Cloud waking up after his trip to the lifestream with Tifa, Everyone(including the Turks and Rufus ) holding hands in order to ward J-E-N-O-V-A off of the planet, Reno looks at Yuffie, who's holding his hand, and she looks back at him with a smile and then Reno returns with his usual smirk, Sephiroth raising his masamune and striking at J-E-N-O-V-A, Rufus talking into his cell phone in his office, then hearing a noise, he swerves his chair(it's the kind with wheels) to face who's there and AVALANCHE burst into the room, Barret lifting his gunarm and shouting at him)  
  
BARRET:What's your plan, ShinRa?!  
  
RUFUS:(hangs up his cell phone) I don't know what you're talking about.  
  
BARRET:OF COURSE YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU---  
  
CLOUD:Calm down, Barret. He's just playing hard to get.  
  
CID:I'll show him hard to get...! (throws his cigarrette on the ground and squishes it with his foot)  
  
RUFUS:Pick that shit up now or I'll--  
  
RENO:Boss. (walks in) We got to join AVALANCHE in order to destroy J-E-N-O-V-A...  
  
RUFUS:No we don't.  
  
RENO:You don't get it. We do. Cloud's the only one who can stop it, and he needs our help. Sadly but...  
  
TIFA:Just help us already and stop talking. (puts hands on her hips and looks angry)  
  
(Scene flashes. J-E-N-O-V-A has its tentacle wrapped around Reno's neck and drains his energy as Yuffie screams at it to stop, but no avail)  
  
SONG:IF I GO CRAZY THEN WILL YOU STILL CALL ME SUPERMAN?  
  
(Reno looks down, the tentacle still squeezing his neck. He looks strained)  
  
SONG:IF I'M ALIVE WILL YOU BE THERE?  
  
(Scene flashes to Yuffie on her knees looking down at the ground, completely helpless of the situation)  
  
SONG:HOLDING MY HAND  
  
(Scene goes to the other members of AVALANCHE and ShinRa watch in horror, too beat up to fight)  
  
SONG:I'LL KEEP YOU BY MY SIDE WITH MY SUPER HUMAN MIGHT.  
  
(J-E-N-O-V-A lets go of Reno and he falls into a crumpled heap on the ground in front of Yuffie)  
  
SONG:Kryptonite....  
  
(Yuffie screams, no sound)  
  
(As the chorus starts up, yet again, AVALANCHE run down the halls of Junon with Reeve in the lead, Meteor explodes, J-E-N-O-V-A desinigrates, Sephiroth ressuructs, Aeris' ghost looks up at Cloud and Tifa in the Church of Sector 5, Turks are with Rufus; fighting AVALANCHE, the baby condor gets a sudden 'growth spurt' and turns into a statue, Yuffie looks over Reno at the Mideel hospital, Tifa puts a hand on Yuffie's shoulder and tries to comfort her, Red XIII fights for Cosmo Canyon against Hojo and for the candle, Vincent turns into Chaos, Cid gets the new rocket to launch, Sephiroth lashes out at Cloud but he blocks with his big-ass sword)  
  
(The song starts to do its last solo, and it shows each party member, including Turks, Rufus, Sephiroth, and Reeve, powering up their limit breaks, and then it shows Midgar again like in the beginning of the song. Reno is still walking down the streets. He glares at an empty soda can and kicks it. The can lands in front of Yuffie's foot. She looks over to Reno, he grins)  
  
RENO:Hey, nice to see you again. At least this time you're not strapped to a damn statue.  
  
YUFFIE:Yes, it's nice to see you again too, especially not on some murderous scam or standing over the body of an unsuspecting victem that got between you and your money.  
  
RENO:...  
  
(Reno gives her a jokingly cold glare, grins again as he walks past her, winks and walks away. Yuffie looks at him surprised at first, and then she gets angry.)  
  
YUFFIE:Jerk!  
  
(Scene fades out)  
  
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How was that? o.o; I hope it's good enough. R n R and tell me what you think, please!!! ~Mousie  
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	2. Chapter One ~My Ressuruction~

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We're finally gunna start this story...whee o.o  
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Chapter One  
  
Oh sure, it was over. As they thought. But they were way wrong. AVALANCHE had only done part of the battle so far. They HAD defeated Sephiroth, but what was ahead of them was the rest of the old battle… And that is where my fanfic begins! \^o^/  
  
Rufus' eyes snapped opened at once. Where was he? All he could make out were blurry figures. He suddenly did a mental check. The only thing he could remember was a yellow beam coming straight at him and then an explosion. He sat up. Instantly he wished he didn't do that. He grabbed his head in pain and screamed. This was way more then a headache. The searing pain told him that he was badly injured. Stiffened, he layed back down on his back. In the background he could hear sirens screaming, and had a feeling they were going after him. Then he noticed someone was talking to him.  
  
"Mr. President!"  
  
He tried to straighten his vision to see who was trying to speak to him.  
  
"Rufus! Hey! It's me! Are you spacing out??"  
  
"Shut up, puppet-boy! He obviously doesn't want to deal with you!"  
  
Rufus then could finally make out who was there. The blurry figures turned out to be his 2d and 3rd in commands, Reeve and Scarlet.  
  
"What happened….?" Rufus asked them, dazed out still from falling sixty-some stories.  
  
"Well.. Ultimate WEAPON went bezerk and started blasting Midgar, then it hit your office with a beam and… we don't know what happened then." Reeve replied.  
  
"BUT…. At least you're safe!" Scarlet said, optimistically.  
  
"Gee.. Thanks." Then Rufus looked around. "Wait… What the hell happened to Midgar??" he asked.  
  
"Meteor.. It hit." Reeve replied.  
  
"I see…" Rufus pondered the thought of what his options to do now were. He could always ressuruct Midgar. But then again, that could be a bad idea in many ways. But, whoever said he couldn't ressuruct ShinRa? He grinned at the thought of all the mako energy that the meteor gave off.  
  
Reeve looked at Rufus skeptically. What did he plan on doing? He decided to ask. But before he could, Scarlet did.  
  
"Rufus, why the hell are you grinning like a maniac??"  
  
Rufus noticed this and stopped, and then he looked over to Scarlet fiercely. "Don't you know how much mako energy that meteor could give off?? We'd be richer then ever! Stupid fool, how could you not see that??" he lectured, glaring at her the whole time.  
  
Scarlet backed down, now both embarrassed and stunned by her president's outburst.  
  
Reeve, of course, saw a terrific downside to this. AVALANCHE would have to act again, and that meant that he'd be caught in the middle. Again. He could stop this, could he?  
  
He had to act fast.  
  
"But what about AVALANCHE?? Shouldn't we just stop and think up something new?" Reeve asked.  
  
Rufus stood up, surprising Scarlet and Reeve that he could, and flicked back his hair. "No problem, we'll just have the Turks take care of them." He replied casually, as if he had it planned out the whole time.  
  
This caught Reeve offguard, however, and was at a loss for words. Scarlet stood up too, followed by Reeve, and then they all walked towards the helicopter, Reeve last, lagging a little bit, and it took off shortly. Reeve was now trying to talk himself into telling AVALANCHE about this…  
  
  
"WHY should I listen to you on this?" Barret exclaimed. "I won the fight fair an' square! Damn foo'!" then he pounded his fist on the table.  
  
"Your arm was DOWN on the table for ten seconds!!" Cloud yelled back at him  
  
Obviously they had gotten restless and decided to take up armwresteling. Not a good idea, though, because they always fought.  
  
Barret was about to snap back at him, when, he heard something on the tv that stook out like a sore thumb. His eyes widened, his face contorted with rage, he squeezed Cloud's hand so much that he screamed for him to let go. Then Barret slammed Cloud's arm as hard as he could on the table and let go, standing up and glaring at the tv. After examining to see if his arm was ok, Cloud looked over to the tv curiously.  
  
"…he was found unharmed with just a few scratches. Strange thing is was how could Rufus ShinRa survive such a fall? Scientist, Hojo, thinks that it's because of the mako he infused into Rufus when…"  
  
Barret screamed in frustration and brought his massive fist back down onto the table so hard it broke it in half.  
  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!"  
  
Tifa jumped, and then she looked at the floor, wondering what had happened. When she saw Cloud come up in the pinball machine, he had a look of pure malice in his eyes.  
  
"What's wrong…?" Tifa asked with sympathetic eyes.  
  
Cloud stammered. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Just when he was about to answer, Barret came up, furious as ever, and answered for him.  
  
"THE FUCKING BASTARD'S STILL ALIVE!!" Barret cursed. Tifa looked questionably at him and then he answered her yet again. "SHINRA IS STILL IN TACT!!".  
  
Tifa stood there for a second, not knowing what to say. Then she promptly dropped the dish she had been washing, and it shattered into tiny pieces all over the floor.  
  
"I…I.." Tifa began. "I thought.. we could have peace for once…"  
  
"Don't think the fight is over just yet." Barret said, harshly.  
  
"Well, lets get everyone else back here, then." Cloud said, leaning onto the wall and resting his elbow against the bar. They nodded.  
  
"Sure." Tifa said, not too happy. "I'll go call them." And then walked away.  
  
The thing was, that she didn't want to ruin everyone else's peace. But she did know that they needed as much help as they could get. But still… If there was only a way… She sighed to herself and picked up her PHS. The first one she would call would be the one they gave all their materia to, no doubt…  
  
  
Yuffie looked up at the mountains overhead. The statues were so tall. She could hardly make it out, but she could swear that she saw someone up there. She had to go find out what it was.  
  
She grabbed the conformer from the strap on her back, and then packed all her potions, ethers, and elixirs that she had. Then she started up the mountains, prepared for any danger that she should have to face.  
  
But she certainly wasn't prepared for what was about to happen.  
  
Someone grabbed her from behind, she let out a yelp, and the person who had her ripped the conformer out of her hands and started dragging her somewhere. She struggled wildly, but she couldn't get away. Then whoever had her brought her face to face with their boss. She recognized the boss right away.  
  
And she screamed as loud as humanly possible.  
  
  
"Hmm.. she must be out. Oh well, we'll pick her up with the Highwind later." Tifa said, with a shrug, and then started dialing Cid's number.  
  
  
"So did you call everyone?" Cloud asked. Everyone was there in the Highwind, but someone was missing…  
  
"I couldn't get Yuffie. We'll have to pick her up." Tifa said.  
  
Cid nodded. Then he turned to the pilot. "Go to Wutai." He said. The pilot nodded, and then Cid turned back to everyone else, shaking his head and muttering, "Damn that kid's a lot more trouble then she's worth…"  
  
"I hate to say this, but she has our materia." Red said. "I would say it is wise to get her right away."  
  
Cid just scratched the back of his head.  
  
"What are we going to do once we get Yuffie back?" Vincent asked, walking up to the group, reloading his gun.  
  
"Dunno." Barret said. "We'll have to find out some info from Cait Sith."  
  
"Good idea." Cloud said.  
  
"We're arriving Wutai, sir!" the pilot said to Cid.  
  
Cid nodded. "Good! Land next to the town."  
  
"Aye aye!" the pilot said, saluting, and then went back to steering.  
  
  
Everyone walked up to Yuffie's house. Something was different about it. It seemed deserted for some reason. Tifa walked up to the door and ventured to knock on it.  
  
Nothing happened.  
  
Tifa shrugged, and then tried again.  
  
Still there was no answer.  
  
A little annoyed, Tifa pounded on the door.  
  
There was still no response.  
  
"GOD DAMNIT!" Barret yelled, then hit the door HARD… "KID ARE YOU EVEN IN THERE??!!"  
  
"You'll probably scare her…" Cloud said.  
  
"Good." Cid answered, taking a drag from his cigarette. "The kid needs some discipline anyway so it wouldn't do her any harm."  
  
Tifa shot Cid a cold glare and then she opened the door slightly. Much to her surprise, it was unlocked!  
  
The first thing they all noticed was a couple or so shirukens and star-darts scattered across the floor, and a few ethers and potions too.  
  
"What's this?" Red asked, sniffing a piece of paper on the ground.  
  
Cloud went over to it and picked it up. "It's dated today." Cloud said. "It's a note. It says, 'Dad, I'll be up in the mountains today, Shake, DO NOT mess with my stuff, signed, Yuffie'….. She's up in the mountains, I guess." Cloud observed.  
  
"Go figure." Cid joked.  
  
"Well then, foo's!" Barret said, pointing his gunarm up into the air. "Les' go to da mountains!"  
  
Then they were off out of Yuffie's house in a flash.  
  
  
"WHY DO YOU ALWAYS PICK ON ME YOU ASSHOLE?!" Yuffie screamed.  
  
She was tied to the Da Chou statue yet again.  
  
And guess who's fault it was?  
  
Yuffie glared down at Don Corneo with a look that could of killed a dragon. But the Don was not phased by it.  
  
"Oooh! You haven't changed!" Don cooed.  
  
Yuffie looked truly disgusted by now. She kept trying to get away, to break loose from straps that held her. She would of fallen if not for them, but it was a hell of a lot better then being stuck with… HIM! She would commit suicide if needed…  
  
  
Tifa's head jerked into the direction of the scream. It startled everyone else, also. They all knew that scream. Well, more or less it was probably like a shriek.  
  
It was Yuffie's.  
  
"Yuffie! She needs our help!" Tifa said.  
  
Cloud and the others drew their weapons. Then they all ran towards the scream.  
  
  
Don suddenly realized people were coming up the mountain trail. He looked down, glaring. And then he noticed that one of them was Cloud.  
  
"ACK! YOU AGAIN?!" Don asked. The rest of AVALANCHE stopped dead in their tracks.  
  
"You fucking bitch! You're still fucking alive?!" Cid exclaimed.  
  
"That I am!" Don said. "EAT THIS!!!!" and then threw eggs at them. In mid air the eggs hatched, and then in front of them twelve dragons separated them from Don.  
  
Cloud brought his sword up, ready to attack. He slashed at the dragon that was closest to him, and it bellowed out, and then slashed its tail out at him, right in the shoulder. He grimaced, and then slashed it again, and it fell down onto a heap on the ground, dead as a doornail.  
  
"These little guys are pretty tough." Cloud said. "Split up and we can kill them easier!"  
  
"Gotcha." They all said in unison and went their separate ways.  
  
Cloud started slashing at another direction, well in the meanwhile everyone else worked on their own.  
  
Tifa punched one right in the gut. Caught offguard, it took a couple seconds to get back to its senses, but before it could do that, Tifa kicked it again in the stomach, and it went sprawling off the rock and onto the ground below. Then three more came and surrounded her. She powered up and cast Bolt3 on all of them with the combination of her all materia, but it wasn't enough. Soon one of the dragons got to its senses quicker then she had, and while she was beating on of the others, it lashed out at her. She fell to the ground, and then got back up, powering up for Ultima. But then another dragon was about to snap at her when Barret blew it away with a chain of bullets. Then Tifa unleashed Ultima and all the dragons in sight, even the ones the others were trying to kill, faded away.  
  
Don's face expressed pure horror. How could they always defeat even his most powerful monsters?? Even the dragons that he raised for the longest time! These were not your average people!  
  
Cloud and the others could tell exactly what he was thinking just by the way he was looking at them. He smirked. "That's right." He said. "You're dealing with AVALANCHE, now." And pointed to the rest of AVALANCHE.  
  
Yuffie looked exasperated. "Showoffs…" she muttered.  
  
Just then Don laughed out loud. A helicopter started lowering to them. Everyone, especially Yuffie, gasped in horror.  
  
"You may of won the fight, but you've LOST the war!" Don said, grinning. One of the flunkies jumped out from the helicopter and forced a flailing Yuffie inside, kicking her in the process. Cloud lunged after Don as he started to get into the helicopter, his sword raised. But Don quickly moved out of the way and then the helicopter flew out of sight in less then a minute.  
  
Everyone else just stood there, looking into the direction it had gone.  
  
"FUCK!" Cid cursed, kicking a nearby rock. "Now we're gonna have to go save her puny little ass AGAIN!!"  
  
"Yeah. But we're going to need a little help." Vincent said.  
  
They turned to him.  
  
"I have to admit you are right, but what kind of help are you talking about?" Red asked.  
  
"The Turks." Vincent replied, coldly.  
  
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Eeee.... A lil short, i know! But I'll make the chapters longer I promise! o.o; Plz R and R!!  
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	3. Chapter Two ~Helletic Don Of The Slums~

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Time For Chapter Two!  
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Chapter Two  
  
"Why would we want to help you?" Reno asked.  
  
They were in the Turtle's Paradise, no wonder, and that's the way AVALANCHE found the two turks. They were on vacation, and probably about half drunk. But when Reno saw one sight of them, he had gone completely sober in an instant.  
  
"Well you helped us last time we had this..erhm.." Cloud thought. "..This kind of problem. "  
  
"What do you mean?" Reno asked, curious. "Who kidnapped the brat this time?"  
  
"Same person." Cid replied, taking a drag from his cigarette.  
  
If Tifa knew better, she would of thought that she saw a faint shade of pale in Reno's and Rude's faces.  
  
"That guy's still alive?!" Reno exclaimed.  
  
"Apparently so." Red said.  
  
"Hmm.." Rude pondered. "How much will you pay us?"  
  
"Whatever's nescisary." Cloud answered.  
  
"And that would be…?" Reno asked. It was certainly no use beating around the bush.  
  
"Fine. 6 thousand gil." Cloud said.  
  
"Good. Fair amount." Reno observed. Then looked over at Cloud. "Let's see it."  
  
Cloud handed over 6 thousand gil. Reno took it.  
  
"Okay, spike." He said. "You got yourself a deal. We'll get the kid back."  
  
"All right." Cloud said. He turned to the others. "Let's go."  
  
Reno got up, followed by Rude, and they started leading AVALANCHE out of the bar. He twirled his nightstick idly and then ran into Elena.  
  
"Ack! Sorry, boss!" Elena said.  
  
"We got a job." Reno said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at AVALANCHE.  
  
"What?! NO way!" Elena said, shaking her head.  
  
"They're paying us 6 thousand gil for retrieving that brat from Don Corneo again." Reno said.  
  
Elena's expression changed. "Grrr.. I wanna get revenge on that creep! I guess I'll come." She said, defeated.  
  
Then they started out again.  
  
Tifa shook her head slowly. Sometimes she wondered how she got herself stuck in these unforgettable situations…  
  
  
"Let…"  
  
"Shut up kid I'm just following orders."  
  
"Me…"  
  
"I said shut up!"  
  
"Out…"  
  
"SHUT UP!!"  
  
"Of…"  
  
"I SAID SHUT UP!!" Scotch hollered at Yuffie, turning around to face her.  
  
"Here!!!!" Yuffie finished.  
  
"NO! Why the hell would I do that??!!" Scotch asked.  
  
"Because if you don't then when I get out of here myself I'll have you all arrested!" Yuffie shot back.  
  
"You mean IF you get out of here… Which is a pretty BIG if!!" Scotch taunted.  
  
Yuffie grasped the bars of the door to her room and glared at him. "I AM GOING TO KILL YOU WHEN… WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE!!!" she yelled.  
  
"Ohhhh… I'm SO scared!" Scotch mocked. Yuffie tried to grab his neck so she could break it through the bars, but he jumped out of the way and shot her hand with his handgun. She let out a cry and fell to her knees, holding her hand.  
  
"Heh, be glad I didn't shoot you where it coulda killed you." Scotch said. Yuffie shot yet, another cold glare, for what seemed to be the thousandth time that day.  
  
Defeated, Yuffie mumbled something under her breath. Scotch leaned closer to hear but all he could make out was "…rather be dead then this…." And grinned to himself.  
  
  
"So… He's holding her captive here?" Vincent asked.  
  
Reno nodded. "This is his new 'hideout'. So where else could he take her?" he replied.  
  
They were standing in front of a tall, creepy building that was at least sixty-stories tall. Maybe bigger, and it didn't look like it was occupied that much. It was in the slums of Junon and it almost looked like one of those old warehouses.  
  
"We're more powerful then him." Cloud pointed out. "With all of our magic abilities, we'll be able to take out him and his flunkies in no problem."  
  
"Um.. Cloud?" Tifa asked.   
  
Cloud looked over to Tifa.   
  
"What?" He asked.  
  
"Yuffie has all of our materia…" Tifa answered.  
  
Everyone fell silent (Cid muttered "@#$%…").  
  
"We still got our limit breaks, and our skills and weapons. No problem whatsoever to us!" Cloud pointed out.  
  
Everyone became less gloomy, but still a little transfixed on the fact Yuffie had all of the materia. What if they didn't succeed?  
  
Reno powered up his electro-mag-rod, making it crackled with electricity. "Come on! Stop yapping, we got a job to do." He said.  
  
Everyone got their weapons ready and burst through the front door.  
  
If this were a laughing matter, they'd laugh as what they were greeted by.  
  
Oh sure, Corneo had flunkies guarding the entrance hall, all right. But one little, slight problem he forgot.  
  
All three of them were drunk.  
  
"Um.. " One of the flunkies began, and got out his sword, grinning oddly at the group of newcomers. The other two guards got their fists ready for battle. But all three seemed very unstable.  
  
"…Yeah. Um.. Let us through." Cloud said.  
  
"Um…" The one with the sword looked for the right words. He finally came up with something after a few moments of thinking. "No."  
  
"Okay. Sorry for interrupting this neat little conversation we have here, but we're gonna hafta kill your ass because ya' won't let us through.." Barret said, raising his gun arm. In a flash, and a few chains of bullets, the guards were lying in a pool of blood on the floor.  
  
"Come on." Reno said. "Let's go." And he leaded the group through the corridor beyond the entrance hall.  
  
Two separate ways. There was a fork in the road.  
  
"I know my way around here." Reno said, gesturing to Cloud. "Corneo and his tykes stole some stuff and we had to get it back, three weeks ago." He exchanged glances with the other turks. "To the right is a corridor with rooms. Probably where Yuffie's being held. To the left is Don's chamber, where he resides."  
  
"Okay. But we're going to have to rescue Yuffie first, right?" Tifa asked.  
  
"Listen. We were hired to rescue Yuffie. But we're not going to fight Don unless necessary. We'll go rescue Yuffie while you guys fight Don, all right?" Reno asked.  
  
Cloud nodded. "Okay."  
  
"If you get Yuffie, return to us." Red said, looking up at Elena. "We'll probably be done with Don Corneo by that time, anyway."  
  
The turks nodded, and headed off to the right. AVALANCHE exchanged some glances, and then headed off left.  
  
  
PICK YOUR DESTINATION-  
  
~~Saving Yuffie?  
~~Defeating Don Corneo?  
  
  
CHAPTER TWO ALTERNITIVE  
  
~~Saving Yuffie  
  
The turks quickly took the right turn, leaving AVALANCHE behind. And soon, they found themselves facing a hall with a variety of doors on each side.  
  
But only one was being guarded. The turks hid from view and listened into the conversation at hand…  
  
"So you see, you shouldn't be so.. CONCEITED.." the guard said to the person who he was talking to, which was looking through the barred door to his right.  
  
Then Reno noticed something. Obviously the other two did also.  
  
"Scotch…!" Elena gasped, but in a whisper.  
  
"How the hell is he still alive?" Rude asked.  
  
"Dunno. Let's just kill him." Reno said, reaching for his nightstick. Then he thought the better of it. "Wait. Let's listen in for a few more minutes." He said.  
  
"SHUT UP!" came a familiar voice.  
  
"Aahhh! Look what happened LAST time you did that, Miss Kisaragi!" Scotch taunted, gesturing to his gun and then her hand.  
  
Yuffie leaned her head through the bars. "Do it again and I'll…" she began, but then Scotch raised his gun to her temple. She immediantly shot back and ducked behind the door. Scotch then went for his keys to the room.  
  
"Don't matter HOW much Don wants you alive…" Scotch said. "I'll kill you anyway!" And then finally unlocked the door.  
  
"NOW!" Reno said to the others, and they darted to the door, weapons raised.  
  
When they entered the room, they saw Scotch in front of Yuffie. Yuffie was backed up against the wall, scared as hell. Scotch had his gun raised. Yuffie's expression changed when she saw who came into the doorway. Then it changed, yet again, to a bummed out one when she realized just who they were.  
  
"Scotch." Reno proclaimed.  
  
Scotch spun around and looked at Reno, horrified.  
  
"Turks…!!" Scotch began.  
  
Reno cut him off when he powered up his nightstick. In the meantime, Elena got a good shot with her mako pistol in his shoulder and Rude punched him in the jaw.  
  
Scotch fell to the ground, defeated. He held his jaw and whipped the blood off his chin, and then he couldn't help noticing two teeth falling out.  
  
He looked up at the turks again, glaring. Reno smirked, and then sent a bolt of electricity at Scotch. Scotch let out one last cry and now he lied on the ground, breathless and without a pulse.  
  
"Takes care of him." Reno said.  
  
Yuffie looked at the Turks. "What the hell are you doing here?" she asked them darkly, certainly not happy even though they had killed Scotch for her. There had to be a catch to this and one of their plans were probably at hand, too!  
  
"Awww… Not happy enough that we saved your ass yet again??" Reno taunted.  
  
Fire flared in Yuffie's eyes. "What the hell are you guys planning?!" she asked.  
  
"Your friends paid money for us to find your little ass and save it." Reno said. Yuffie looked at him in disbelief. "They're taking care of Don Corneo right now. We need to join them or they might no make it. Come on." He then walked out, followed by his teammates.   
  
Yuffie stood there, silent for a couple moments. She then grumbled, frustrated, and stomped after them, picking up her shiruken and her materia pouch from Scotch's dead corpse in the meanwhile.  
  
  
Chapter Two Alternative  
  
~~Defeating Don Corneo  
  
AVALANCHE ran down the corridor to the left, ready for anything. Cloud was leading the group, along with Tifa, then Barret, Red, Cid, and Vincent in that order. Then a couple more guards, and of course they were stupid and drunk, jumped into their way.  
  
"YAAAAH!!" Cloud cried as he sliced one of the guards in two.  
  
The other four other guards whimpered. They were smarter then the first ones they encountered, and ran off.  
  
AVALANCHE continued the pursuit.  
  
Soon enough, they came to a door. It was big, and the handle was solid gold. Who else could be so rich as to buy that?  
  
Cloud wasted no time, he ripped the door open to see Don Corneo sitting at his desk, which was made out of silver and bronze, his feet propped up and smoking a cigar. He immediantly paled, dropping his cigar, and fall off his chair when he saw them.  
  
"HOW THE-"  
  
"Fucking bastard!" Cid cursed at Don Corneo, raising his spear. "Dare try to take MY favorite word!"  
  
Everyone else got their weapons ready, and then lashed out at Don Corneo. But he had a much, much better plan then to play helpless and wait for his death.  
  
That's when he started glowing. Then Cloud and the others noticed something in an instant, and this was bad. Very bad…  
  
He had mako colored eyes…  
  
Don grinned, and started laughing like a maniac.  
  
"MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! YOU CANNOT STOP ME. WORTHLESS! I AM NOT JUST DON CORNEO ANYMORE! I AM HELLETIC DON CORNEO!!"  
  
And then he began to transform into a vicious, gruesome monster. He was even more disgusting then his humanly self, as much as human as he could have been. He had tentacles instead of arms and hands, eleven tentacles to be exact. His skin turned a dark purple, veins bulging out; he almost looked like a giant, mutilated octopus. Except he had legs and feet, with sharp, razor-like claws and coming from his mouth was slimy, green gooze. Tifa didn't want to know what that stuff was…  
  
"TIFA WATCH OUT!" Cloud screamed, but it was too late…  
  
Tifa turned to look, but all she saw was a blur, and then she felt pain. Don Corneo had one of his tentacles wrapped around her neck! And he was squeezing it hard, intending to choke her.  
  
"Tifa!!!" They all cried. But Don had her raised high, and nobody could reach her. And what was worse, Yuffie had all the materia!  
  
Don grinned sinisterly, a look so wicked only he could pull it off. "I told you back then, on Da Chou.." Don began, lifting her up higher with his tentacle, choking her more forcefully, "I. Will. Have. The… Last laugh!" and then he laughed out a maniacal roar of laughter, and then powered up for one last blow to her heart…  
  
"ALL CREATION!!" a girl's voice cried from out of the shadows, a piercing shrill of purple light illuminated the ground as a blast scorned Don at full force, and Tifa fell the ground. Cloud jumped up and caught her right in the nick of time so she wouldn't break any more bones.  
  
Then, from up in the rafters, Yuffie's nimble figure sprang downwards, landing between Don Corneo and the group, AVALANCHE. She was glaring at him.  
  
Before she could say anything, though, the Turks burst through the door, weapons in hand. Don took one glance at them, but that was a bad idea.  
  
Seizing this opportunity, Yuffie quickly drew a red summon materia and then yelled out, holding it high into the air, "TIDAL WAVE!!!" and then she and everyone else except her target, Don Corneo, disappeared. The ground grew several inches of water, and a looming, ominous figure of a magnificent sea serpent glared down at the now-puny Don Corneo. It let out a shreik so ear-ringing that windows shattered and his eardrums literally exploded, and to make it worse, a sudden flash of water winded over him, knocking him out cold. Yuffie and the others then phased back into the room where they were standing a few seconds later.  
  
Don materialized back into his human self, and Yuffie went over and checked his pulse. After a few seconds of waiting, the other members of their rag-tag group content, she stood up, grinning like mad.  
  
"He died on impact!" Yuffie replied.  
  
"Good." Elena said. "Now we can go our own separate ways."  
  
"Yeah, the boss is gonna be pissed if we don't return soon." Reno replied.  
  
The turks started to walk out, but before completely disappearing out of their field of vison, they heard Rude mutter, "I wish Rufus would just STAY dead…"  
  
Cloud looked down at Tifa. She stirred. "What happened??" she asked.  
  
Cloud shook his head and looked up at the others. "We have to go to Mideel and make sure she's all right." He said. "She might have a couple broken bones."  
  
They nodded, and then walked out of the god-foresaken hell-hole…  
  
~~~~  
Hehe, I'll aware u, you're gunna see some romance between some two ppl soon.. ^_______^ Plz R n R!  
~~~~ 


	4. Chapter Three ~One Less Execution~

~~~~  
Now for the 3rd chapter! Enjoy!  
~~~~  
Chapter Three  
  
  
Everyone was in the Mideel hospital for the next week, healing up from the battle. But mainly waiting for a plan to come up.  
  
It turned out Tifa had only one broken rib, which was easy for the Doctor to fix. Yuffie, on the other hand, was suffering from lead poisoning and had to get the bullet removed immediantly in an operation that took three hours long. First, they had to remove the bullet, then they had to remove the infected blood out of her body. A simple antidote fixed the remainder of her blood, and it would be another three days in order for her to move her wrist again. The doctor, who knew how active they all were, told Yuffie to stay at the hospital until it was completely healed. She was a little angry at this, but she went with it reluctantly.  
  
"So… How are we gunna take care 'bout Rufus??" Barret asked Cloud.  
  
"Well.." Cloud thought. "I say we get some information first."  
  
"How?" Tifa asked.  
  
"I think Cait Sith would be a good source of info." Red suggested.  
  
"But how the fuck are we supposed to find that damn cat??!" Cid asked.  
  
"We will. I have a feeling he's around." Vincent said. They all turned to look at him. "We all know how Reeve is. He was with us in the beginning, he'll be with us in the end."  
  
"Then all we got to do is wait?" Cloud asked.  
  
"Seems so." Vincent replied.  
  
"But what if ShinRa finds us?" Tifa asked. Everyone turned to look at her. "Then we'd have to hide out somewhere else. And I don't think Yuffie's well enough to run around saving the world yet, either."  
  
"You shouldn't be talking." Barret pointed out. "Ya still gotta wait for your bone to heal all the way, then we'll be ready to go."  
  
Tifa sulked.  
  
"Don't worry." Cloud said, trying to brighten things up. "Everything'll be fine! The good guys always win. That's us!"  
  
"Yeah, you're right, spike-head!" Cid said, taking a drag from his cig. "No one 'ill beat AVALANCHE, we're still strong, and ShinRa is just a rebirth of a living hell!"  
  
"Hey, where's Yuffie?" Tifa asked.  
  
"She's in her room." Red said.   
  
"That's kid's been awful quiet lately." Barret observed.  
  
"We'll ask her later." Cloud said. Everyone else nodded.  
  
  
'Oh GAWD… This can't..this CAN'T be happening!!!' Yuffie thought, hoping for the answer, 'no', but instead she got no answer at all. Did she really like him…?  
  
She didn't have much time to think. Because then the nurse came into the room. Yuffie looked up at the nurse.  
  
"The doctor says you're well enough to go now." The nurse said. Yuffie's face brightened up. Maybe now she could see what her answer was.  
  
Yuffie jumped out of the bed so quickly, that the nurse was surprised by how quickly she had recovered.  
  
She ran into the others in the hall. Tifa had recovered, too. But when they looked at her, they looked concerned.  
  
Yuffie raised an eyebrow. "Eh.. What did I do this time??" she asked.  
  
"Yuffie, why the hell have you been SO quiet lately?!" Cloud asked.  
  
"Just cuz I don't wanna talk doesn't mean it's a crime!" Yuffie shot back.  
  
They sighed and everyone started to walk out.  
  
Then a familiar sight ran to them. A little black and white cat with a crown on top of a giant stuffed moogle hopped over to them.  
  
"Cait Sith!" Tifa exclaimed.  
  
"No time!" Cait Sith said. "ShinRa's back!"  
  
"We know that!" Barret said.  
  
"Well, then what are you doing at the hospital??" Cait Sith asked.  
  
"Tifa and Yuffie were injured by Don Corneo." Red explained.  
  
"Oh." Cait Sith said. "Well, I've come to help you."  
  
"Figured you would." Cloud said.  
  
Cait Sith scratched the back of his head. "Eh… Sorry about being too late for beating Don's ass, though. Reeve found out that while we weren't fighting that a bug had gotten into the box-thingie that makes me able to transmit." He said  
  
"Yeah." Cloud said. "It's okay."  
  
"Say, could yeh start by telling us where the new base fer ShinRa is?" Cid asked. "I'd like to give a warm welcome to Rufus." He said with a slight smirk, and then took a drag of his cig.  
  
Cait Sith nodded. "Okay. Let's go to the Highwind." He said. "Everyone ready?"  
  
They nodded. Then they all ran off towards the Highwind.  
  
  
Reeve was at his computer, typing away. At the moment he was making a transmission through Cait Sith, and after he was done he was going to put it on auto-pilot. But then he heard footsteps down the hall. They were loud, forbidding ones. Ones that usually brought trouble.   
  
Then two ShinRa soldiers busted into the room abruptly. Why were they after him??  
  
"Hey!" Reeve protested as the guards took him by both arms and dragged him out of the room. "What do you think you're doing?!!"  
  
  
All of the sudden Cait Sith's head sunk.  
  
"Huh?" Tifa wondered. She walked over to Cait Sith and tapped it on its crown. Nothing happened. Its mog was out too.  
  
"Dude, what the hell's wrong with it?" Barret asked.  
  
"Cait?" Cloud asked. He walked over to Cait also and looked at him. Then he forced-pulled his right eye open and looked inside. He jumped back suddenly.  
  
"What is it?" Red asked.  
  
"If you look through his eye you can usually see Reeve on the other end, right?" Cloud asked.  
  
The others nodded hesitantly.  
  
"Well…" Cloud began. He showed the eye to everyone else.  
  
All that was left was a headset on the ground…  
  
  
"Um… Rufus!" Reeve began but was soon cut off.  
  
"I'm very disappointed in your behavior!" Rufus said to Reeve.  
  
"Huh?" Reeve asked. "Why am I wearing handcuffs? What did I do?"  
  
"You betrayed ShinRa." Rufus said. "Don't think I'm too stupid to have figured out what Cait Sith is REALLY doing!"  
  
Reeve looked surprised. How could of Rufus found out…?  
  
After a moment of silence, Rufus brushed his hair back and looked at the guards. "Take him away." He said. "He is to be executed tomorrow at sunrise."  
  
"WHAT?!" Reeve exclaimed, but was then dragged away by the guards.  
  
As soon as Reeve had left, Rufus looked into the direction of a shadowed portion of the room. "Turks." He said.  
  
Then the three turks stepped out of their hiding places.  
  
"Yes, boss?" Elena asked.  
  
"I got a little riddle for all of you." Rufus said, clamping his hands together as a couple of clapper-lights went on behind him. "Who's cowardly, owns a whole continent, and will do anything in his power to save his remaining family member?"  
  
"Godo Kisaragi?" Reno asked.  
  
"Bingo." Rufus answered. He turned back towards them again. "And how are we going to be able to make him hand over Wutai?" he asked.  
  
"Kidnap his daughter!" Elena piped.  
  
"Exaclty." Rufus said.  
  
"So." Reno began. "You want us, the turks, to kidnap Lord Godo's daughter, Yuffie, and AVALANCHE member?"  
  
Rufus simply nodded.  
  
Reno smirked. "Consider it done, boss." He answered. They both shook hands.  
  
  
"Okay. Scratch trying to get to the base." Cloud explained. They were all in the infirmary, in the Highwind. "Now we got to focus on getting to Junon to save Reeve. Any objections?"  
  
"Hell no!" Barret said, pounding his large fist on the table, making it shake. Tifa had to hold her coke to stop it from falling off. "As much as that guy was a damn traitor before, he always had a plan! In fact, without him, Tifa would've been dead right now because of dem ShinRa!" he paused to glance at Tifa, then he looked around the room and continued. "Why the hell would we let him die if he's one of us?!"  
  
The others muttered stuff like 'Yeah!', 'He's right!', and 'Uhuh!'. Cloud scratched the back of his head and then smiled. "Okay." Then he turned to face Cid. "Cid---" he began, but was cut off when the pilot sniggered, and pointed to his pilot badge proudly.  
  
"Heh heh. Don't worry, spike!" Cid said. Then, walking out of the infirmary and yelling at the in-trainer pilot, "HEY GET OFF YOUR FUCKING LAZY ASS YOUR BREAK'S OVER! WE'RE FLYING THIS PLANE TO JUNON!!! COME ON!!!" and with that they could hear a large scuttle on the main deck.  
  
After a few moments the ship's engines began to roar and the Highwind slowly lifted off the ground. Everyone departed and walked off to their own places. Yuffie stayed behind a few moments longer.  
  
Before she left, Tifa looked behind her and saw Yuffie. Her face was now a familiar shade of green. She merely smiled. "Yuffie, have you ever tried tranquilizers?" she asked pleasantly.  
  
"They never worked…" Yuffie half muttered half whimpered as she lifted herself up from her seat. Tifa shook her head dismissively and walked to the main deck.  
  
  
"Okay everyone." Cloud said as they were starting to reach Junon. They were all on the main deck, waiting for the lecture on how they were going to sneak in. "This is what we do. We'll divide into two groups. Me, Tifa, and Barret go in one while Red, Cid and Vincent are in another one." he began.  
  
"What about me?" Yuffie asked.  
  
"You're on your own." Cloud said. "Being a ninja and all, if we get into trouble--"  
  
"I'll be up in the rafters ready to kick some ShinRa ass, yada yada yada." Yuffie sneered.  
  
Cloud frowned at being mocked, but then he continued. "My group will enter from the left side of the building, while Cid's group enter on the right side. After that we should all meet up at the Highwind in two hours from now. If you don't find Reeve right away, then get out of there, we can't spare anymore mistakes. Got it?"  
  
Everyone else nodded.  
  
"Okay. Let's mo--" Cloud began but yet again was cut off by Cid's smirk. He grined sheephishly and then started again. "MOVE OUT!"  
  
Everyone then ran in their own seperate directions as the airship landed.  
  
Cloud looked to his left and his right. Good. Tifa and Barret were still with him. They ran to the left side of the building and waited. They saw several ShinRa guards surveying the area. They ducked behind a few crates to keep out of sight.  
  
"What are we going to do, Cloud?" Tifa asked him in a hushed whisper. "There's no way we can get in there!"  
  
"Hush, spike's prolly' gotta plan!" Barret hissed back. Then he looked over to Cloud. "Don't ya?"  
  
Cloud nodded, not looking at either of them, but with a distant look ahead. Then he fished out a sleep materia from his pocket and it started to glow. Himself, Tifa, and Barret backed away a little more and then Cloud casted Sleepel on the guards, a big purple star bonking each of them on the head sensless.  
  
After the coast was clear and all the guards were down, they darted into the building. As they turned the corner another guards spotted them, and as of on instinct, he raised his gun. Before he had a chance to fire, Barret has blown him away, only having enough stomache to take once glance at the dead coarpse as they passed it.  
  
After running and killing guards for another few minutes, they reached the execution room. Cloud looked over to Tifa. "Hey, Teef." Tifa looked over at him, wondering what he wanted her to do. "Call Cid on his PHS and tell him we're there. Also tell him to head back to the Highwind."  
  
Tifa nodded and picked up her PHS. Before she could dial anything, Scarlet and Heideggar stepped out of the room to go get some coffee, and came face to face with the three.  
  
Scarlet grinned evily as she walked over to them. Heideggar just buffawed in laughter.  
  
"AVALANCHE come to save lil ol' Reeve, eh?" Scarlet asked. Then she clapped her hands twice. "Come, boys! We got some more people for you play interactive hang-man with!" she called, directing it somewhere over Tifa's shoulder. They turned around in time to see three ShinRa SOLDIERs run around the corner.  
  
Then they turned towards Scarlet and Heideggar to see three more SOLDIERs run in from behind them. Soon they were surrounded.  
  
Scarlet sneered, snickering evily. "Heh heh heh. No where for you guys to run, now, is there?" she asked.  
  
"Shi'!" Barret cursed.  
  
  
"Come on, run faster you fucking slow pokes!!!" Cid yelled at the others from behind his shoulder. Red was bounding right behind him, not going as fast as possible but fast enough. Vincent was to the side of Red, his scarlet cape flailing behind him, gun raised in case they came into any trouble.  
  
Why the hell was Cid complaining?  
  
Because they hadn't found Reeve yet!!!  
  
Then they heards the alarms blaring like crazy. They all stopped and assumed their own battle stances, but nothing happened.   
  
Then Scarlet's voice came on the intercom.  
  
"WE GOT THREE MEMBERS OF AVALANCHE! YOU MUST FIND THE REMAINING FOUR NOW!! DO NOT LET THEM ESCAPE, NO MATTER WHAT THE COSTS!! BRING THEM TO ME, DEAD OR ALIVE!!!!!" she beamed.  
  
"Fuck.." Cid swore under his breath.  
  
"They got the others." Red said. "We have no other option then to keep going. We must find them all."  
  
Cid looked over to Vincent. "Well, vampire-boy. What's your say on this?" he asked.  
  
"....." Vincent looked calmly ahead. "I say we go after them. We are going to win this battle together. And we need the others to help us." Then he raised his quick silver, aimed, and fired. They heard a cry of pain as a SOLDIER fell limp the ground from out of the shadows. Then six other SOLDIERs ran into the scene.  
  
Red concentrated hard. He then let out a wolfish cry and threw up a red materia into the air with his teeth. A big beast with devil like horns appears in the sky, and then blew fire at the SOLDIERs at full force before disappearing again. They all fell to the ground, only showing the remains of the burnt coarpses.  
  
"Good show!" Cid commented. Then he turned to run again. "COME ON!!!"  
  
Vincent and Red shot after him at an instant.  
  
A couple corridors down they saw a couple of red-suited ShinRa guards.  
  
One of them noticed them.  
  
"AVALANCHE!!" He yelled in a disgusted voice. He lifted up his rifle and aimed at them.  
  
The other guard got into a battle stance and held up an ice materia. "ICE THREE!" He cried.  
  
For a split second, the AVALANCHE members felt their insides beginning to stiffen. A very sickening feeling came over Cid as he felt a gigantic icicle form in his stomache. Then he noticed his skin AND insides were turning into ice! Before he knew it, the ice had expanded even more until it had covered him completely and then cracked into a million or so pieces, pain surging through his body.  
  
They all staggered to the ground, trying to regain their composure. No matter how strong they were, nothing could go through an Ice Three and feel perfectly normal afterwards. But Vincent still had his gun raised. He took aim on the first guard and shot five bullets to his chest. They all found their way, and the guard crumpled to the ground in a heap.  
  
Then they all focused on the other guard. Frightened, he raised his own rifle and fired a dozen electricity bolts of sleepel-attributed fires at them all. Only Cid was affected, and he fell down to the ground, unconsious.  
  
Red quickly cast fire on the rifle, making it explode.  
  
"HEY!" The guard squealed. Then, seeing it was all useless, he ran out of sight, not wanting to turn out like his partner.  
  
"Wake up, Captain Cid!" Red said, and batted at him with his paw.  
  
"Eh?...Where's my tea...?" Cid asked sleepily.  
  
"No time for tea. We got to save Reeve and the others." Vincent stated.  
  
Cid quickly got to his senses and stood up with the support of his spear, and then went back to running as if it were some instant reflex. Red and Vincent followed.  
  
Then soon, they got to the door of the execution room. Oddly, there were no guards. Probably because they were all inside. They all ducked behind the door. Cid stood up slightly and peered through the door window at what was happening. Scarlet was giving a speech to a whole bunch of reporters and internationalists, with a few ShinRa SOLDIERS at her side. Against the wall, tied up to chairs, were Reeve, Cloud, Barret, and Tifa.  
  
"Okay. We need a plan." Cid said.  
  
"I already got one." Vincent said, surprising the other two.  
  
"What might that be?" Red asked.  
  
"We have to wait until they're inside the room though. And we will have to move fast. Are you sure you want to proceed with my idea?" Vincent asked.  
  
"Spit it out! We don't have all fucking day!" Cid hissed.  
  
"Okay." Vincent complied. "We have to sneak in as soon as they've locked up the room. When they least expect it. Then we attack Scarlet and her SOLDIERs from behind while those news reporters retreat. Then we grab the key from Scarlet, grab the others, and run." he explained.  
  
"Good idea." Cid said.  
  
"Most thought out." Red replied.  
  
They waited. It almost seemed like forever to wait for Scarlet to get done with her speech. All that she talked about was how scared she was durring Meteor, how frusterated she was by AVALANCHE, and how the weapons in ShinRa were going to be advanced. Nothing big. Then she turned to the SOLDIERs.  
  
"Put them in the room." She ordered.  
  
The SOLDIERS then tied Reeve, Cloud, Barret, and Tifa and led them into the gas chamber, guns poking them in the back to insure that they didn't escape.  
  
Then Cid slowly opened the door, as quietly as possible. Red closed it softly behind him with his hind paw. They slowly crept quietly through the shadows. Scarlet had then continued her speech, the SOLDIERs lined up behind her again. By the time they were behind the SOLDIERs in the shadows, they were already powering up their most powerful materia.  
  
"Now." They heard Vincent whisper.  
  
All at once, a varage of spells hit the SOLDIERs. Fire exploded over their heads, while the earth shook rapidly beneath them. Scarlet let out a shreik of terror and fell to her knees, covering her ears and squeezing her eyes shut. At once all the news reporters scurried out, not wanting to be in the line of fire. Then a great surge of electricity formed a ball around the SOLDIERs and exploded, sending sparks everywhere. After the attack, Cid, Vincent, and Red saw the six SOLDIERs fall to the ground, crumpled. The visors in their helmets to singed to see inside. Cid was sure he didn't want to see anyway, no matter how much he hated the ShinRa.  
  
Scarlet had disappeared, obviously driven and outnumbered. She was actually hiding behind the door. She growled angrily and raised her fist to herself. "Those jerks are gunna pay!" she thought, and then darted back off towards her office.  
  
Too bad she dropped her key!  
  
"Stupid ass." Cid snickered, picking up the key. He then ambled over to the gas room door and inserted the key. He turned it and unlocked it. A moment later Reeve, Cloud, Barret, and Tifa all walked out of the room, still covering their mouths. Tifa swung the door shut behind her, her face contorted with disgust.  
  
"Ugh, that's the second time, already!" she shreiked.  
  
"Come one, we gotta get outta here!" Reeve explained.  
  
"Well duh, foo'! What else?" Barret hollored back.  
  
"No. I mean NOW! Rufus is probably gonna arrive with even MORE forces!!!!" Reeve explained, panicked.  
  
"Okay. MOVE OUT!" Cloud ordered.  
  
Then they all ran towards the exit, Cid muttering, "He's getting too use to that phrase..." on the way out.   
  
As they made their way out across the Neo Sister Ray, they heard the Highwind hovering above. One of the crew members was on the side deck. Cid waved for him to throw out the rope ladder, and the crew member complied. Then they all got onto the ladder and climbed up to the airship. Soon after, they all had returned to the infirmary.  
  
But somone was missing!  
  
  
'They haven't come back for a while...' Yuffie thought as she ran through Junon, towards the upper plate of the town. 'I gotta see if they're all right!'  
  
As she approached the guard, she quickly handed him ten gil and scuttled into the elevator before he could even react. The guard simply scratched the back of his head and went back to usual duty.  
  
Comming out of the elevator, Yuffie ran down the streets of Junon, looking around frantically for any sign of the others. As she passed a few alleys, she began to wonder if they had just gotten back.  
  
Then somone grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into one of the alleys. She whirled around and tried to rip the hand from seizing her arm, but she had no avail.   
  
Soon they shoved her against the cold, brick wall. She felt them pull her wrists together and then the short clink of handcuffs could could be heard. As soon as she was left free, except for the handcuffs, she spun around to see her enemies.  
  
"TURKS?!" she screeched.  
  
"Sorry, Yuffie. But..." Reno began, but was then cut off.  
  
"--You're under arrest for being a part of a terrorist group! That group's name is AVALANCHE!" Elena butted in.  
  
"And don't you forget it!" Yuffie growled.  
  
"Shut up!" Reno declared. He then shocked her enough so that she would pass out. But nothing happened.  
  
All that she did was jerk in pain and slid to the ground, on her knees, keeled over. She winced and clutched her stomache. The three turks looked down at her as if she was some pathetic ladybug. She looked back up at them, glaring.  
  
"You're gunna pay." She snarled. "I swear. When my friends find out..." she trailed off as soon as Reno pointed the nightstick at her once more.  
  
"Shut up." He repeated. Then he shocked her once more. Yuffie gave out a cry as it hit her, and then her head sunk, unconsious.  
  
"Come on." Rude said. "We have to get her back to the boss for further orders."  
  
The turks nodded triumphantly. Reno picked Yuffie up and they started to head back to their helicopter.  
  
  
"We're missing Yuffie!!!" Tifa screeched. "HOW COULD YOU LEAVE HER BEHIND?!!!!" she screamed at Cid.  
  
"Fucking hell!" Cid cursed. "We didn't even see her!!!"  
  
"YOUR PLANE DROVE AWAY!" she screamed back.  
  
"WOULD YOU OF RATHER LIKED IT BACK THERE, SUFFOCATED IN THAT DAMN GAS ROOM?!!!"  
  
Tifa went silent after that. Then she looked up again, not knowing what to say.  
  
"She's in big trouble."  
  
AVALANCHE turned towards Reeve at the sound of his voice.  
  
"....What do you mean....in trouble?" Tifa asked.  
  
"BIG trouble? Dat's bad." Barret observed. "Explain, foo'."  
  
"They had plans to kidnap her." Reeve explained.  
  
"...Who?" Cloud asked, cursiously.  
  
"The turks." Reeve stated.  
  
The others went into an immediant uproar.  
  
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE FUCKING TURKS KIDNAPPED HER?!" Cid exclaimed.  
  
"DAMN SHINRA!!!" Barret countered.  
  
"How could they do this?!!" Tifa asked.  
  
"Why would they want to kidnap her?" Red asked.  
  
"To get Wutai." Reeve said. "They're going to hold her for ransom, but then go back on their word and take everything for themselves. Rufus is..." he paused.  
  
"What?" Cloud asked, taking a step closer to the black haired ShinRa executive.  
  
"Rufus...H...H...He's going to destroy the entire continent!!" Reeve shouted, as if he didn't want the information in his head anymore.  
  
Everyone gasped, and there was a long, awkward, silence....  
  
~~~~  
Gawd.. That was long... Plz R n R! ^-^  
~~~~ 


	5. 

~~~~  
Next chapter! ^^ Whoa, each chapter keeps getting longer n longer... x.x; Oh wells! Please read!  
~~~~  
  
Chapter Four  
  
"What should we do with her?"  
  
"Just let her be. She'll wake up."  
  
"The boss said to leave her in here anyway."  
  
"But she looks so cute when she's asleep...Heh heh..."  
  
"Reno shut up!"  
  
"Geeze.... I was only joking..."  
  
"....."  
  
"(Gawd she's hot...)"  
  
"RENO!!"  
  
"Sorry!!"  
  
Yuffie opened one of her eyes wearily, not all the way. She didn't want them to know that she was awake yet. Maybe she could get some information out of them without asking.  
  
"Well. In any case, I'm gonna see what Rufus will say!" Elena said, and scampered off. Rude followed her silently.  
  
Then Yuffie saw Reno look her way. She quickly closed her eyes.  
  
Reno smirked and walked over to her. She was in one of the jail cells on floor 67 in the ShinRa HQ. Reno opened the cell's door and closed it behind him. Yuffie heard his steps nearing and she begged he didn't see her. Then he kneeled down next to her.  
  
"I know you're awake, Yuff." He said softly in her ear.  
  
Her eyes snapped open. He was gazing back at her with beautiful aquamarine eyes.  
  
'SNAP OUTTA IT, YUFFIE!' she thought to herself. 'He's the enemy!!!'  
  
Then his hand dropped to her cheek in a caress. Her face went pink, and she could tell, too. He smirked.  
  
"Eh? Have something for me, don't ya?" He asked, his smirk growing slightly.  
  
Yuffie suddenly jerked away, looking purely disgusted.  
  
"Jerk! You stay away from me!" she screeched.  
  
"Not if I don't want to." Reno replied, standing up.  
  
"Well you can't have me, so back off!" Yuffie intersected. "Damn man-whore.."  
  
'There.' she thought. 'Good idea. Covering up your feelings with more rejects. Good, good. You're always doing this!! Stop it for once! But he's the enemy! So?!' Yuffie was getting annoyed by the two voices arguing in her head.  
  
"What are you going to do with me, anyhow?" Yuffie asked him, breaking the silence.  
  
He smirked. "Lets just say it's undecided yet." He said. Reno caught the frown on Yuffie's face and then continued. "Oh but I bet you'd like to hear that you're going to be used as bait to get Wutai! Hmm?"  
  
Yuffie turned red with anger. "WHAT?!" Then she glared menacingly at him. "If you even dare..." she began, but trailed off as Reno reached under his jacket for his nightstick.  
  
"Glad we have an agreement." He chuckled. Yuffie growled angrily and stalked to the other side of the room, and faced the wall away from him.  
  
A few minutes of silence later, they heard footsteps comming their way. Reno stepped out of the cell. Yuffie just looked over he shoulder curiously, and then went back to glaring at the wall, knowing pretty well who it was.  
  
"So, what did the boss say?" Reno asked, leaning against the doorway.  
  
"He said we should take her to his office. I think we should comply." Rude answered.  
  
"Okay." Reno said.  
  
"Come on, we don't want to make him mad."  
  
"Where's El?" Reno asked, standing up straight.  
  
"Back at the office. Rufus needed to talk to her about something, don't know what." Rude answered.  
  
"Hmm.." Reno thought about this for a moment, and then stepped out of the doorway and closed the jail cell's door.  
  
"Shimatta.." Yuffie cursed under her breath.  
  
Reno snickered. "Heh. I know THAT wutain word." he mocked.  
  
"Hey, dude, I said we needed to bring her with us." Rude said.  
  
"She's too much trouble." Reno whined.  
  
"Just do it." Rude half-begged, aggrivated.  
  
"Fine Fine." Reno answered. He opened the door again and walked into the cell.  
  
Yuffie swirled around and dodged out of the way. Reno lept out at her, trying to grab her by her arms. She jumped out of the way quickly and darted for the door. But Rude was blocking her path.  
  
"Where do you think you're going?" Rude asked, looking down at her.  
  
Reno came up behind Yuffie and recliped the handcuffs over her wrists. Yuffie grumbled as she was lead to Rufus' office by the two turks.  
  
  
"So!!" Barret began. "I got an idea for a way we can spring the kid!"  
  
"What's that?" Cloud asked.  
  
"We can get more people to be involved in AVALANCHE and then break into the ShinRa building!" Barret proclaimed. "Damn foo's won't be able to even react!!!"  
  
"Yeah, but I think that is rather foolish." Red said.  
  
Barret looked at Red critically.  
  
"What do ya mean, foo'?!" he asked indignantly.  
  
"Even if we had such numbers, in the situation ShinRa and ourselves are now... That'll almost be impossible." Red explained, swishing his tail impatiently.  
  
Barret cursed under his breath.  
  
"Then...what do we do?" Tifa asked, waiting for an answer.  
  
"Teef..." Cloud began.   
  
Tifa turned to him curiously. "Something bad's going to happen, and you know it!" She said, waving her arms out to emphasize her point even further. "It's going to be a bad thing, too! And..." she trailed off, looking into his eyes, and then slowly averting her gaze around the room, "If something bad DOES happen... What will we do then?"  
  
There was a long silence around the room.  
  
"Tifa, we can't go back after Yuffie yet again... I hate to say that and yet it's a relief." Cloud started. "But if we keep chasing after to un-capture people sooner or later ShinRa's going to have reached their goal and we'd be stuck in the dust. We have to move on and hopefully meet up with her later."  
  
Tifa nodded solemnly, but she didn't speak.  
  
"Well, what we should worry about is," Vincent said, stepping up from the shadows he was hidden in. "why ShinRa wants to get Yuffie so badly. I mean, Don Corneo wouldn't just kidnap her for revenge. He wouldn't do that unless there were people to back him up."  
  
"Vince's right." Cid said, taking a drag of his cigarette. "They're up to something big. So the first thing we do is find out what. And more importantly, why the fuck there is a whole bunch of reports of SOLDIERs in Wutai lately."  
  
"Where did you hear that?" Tifa asked.  
  
"On the news back in Rocket Town before you guys even called me up on this wacky adventure." Cid answered. "Since we were so close to Wutai, the news probably thought it could be a danger to us, too."  
  
"Well, maybe we should ask the damn spy!" Barret said, glaring and turning his head over to glance at Reeve.  
  
Reeve was sitting at the infirmary table with all the others, but his head was low and his eyes were fixed on something that wasn't really there. He hadn't said a word for the longest time and was acting like he was off in some other world.  
  
"Well, foo'!" Barret slammed his mighty fist on the desk. Again, all of their glasses shook. Tifa had to hold hers to keep it from falling off the table.  
  
Reeve slowly looked up at them all, suddenly back. His eyes showed no emotion whatsoever, but there was a somewhat quaver in his voice as he spoke. "They...the ShinRa...they said that they were going to relive the war against Wutai..."  
  
"Yeah, you already told us that." Cloud said, scratching the back of his head.  
  
"But... They said there was some sort of energy in that materia cave." Reeve countered.  
  
"NO WAY! THEY CAN'T SUCK THE MAKO OUTTA THERE!!!!" Barret roared.  
  
"Sh, Barret!" Cloud hissed. Barret glared coldly at him.  
  
"If there's a force comming from the Mime Materia cave... That's usually meaning something bad's going to happen." Red said.  
  
"What do you expect to happen?" Cid asked.  
  
"I don't know..." Red said thoughtfully.  
  
"If only Aeris was back." Cloud said. All of the others' heads snapped up at the mention of their lost friend. Aeris had died the summer just before and there were all hit very strongly about it. Tifa in particular, because they were such good friends. And Cloud, too, because she had known his friend, Zack, long ago.  
  
"Cloud...she's gone..." Tifa tried to say as calmly as possible.  
  
"But...maybe she could know what was happening..." Clouod trailed off.  
  
"It's true, if she were back we would all be happier, but we can't redo the past. What's done is done. That's all there is to it." Vincent said.  
  
"Then...what do we do?" Tifa asked.  
  
"Then, we go to the cave." Cloud said, standing up, and twirled his sword in the air triumphantly at finding a plan.  
  
"But...How is that helping our situation???" Barret asked.  
  
Cid laughed. "Who the fuck cares?! HEY PILOT WE'RE TAKING OFF!!! FLY THIS PLANE'S ASS TO THE WUTAIN MIME MATERIA CAVE -NOW-!!!" he hollored.  
  
In a few minutes the Highwind's engine began to roar and soon they took off to Wutai.  
  
"I just damn well hope you find what you're lookin' for, spike." Barret said, and ran out of the infirmary.  
  
"Don't worry." Cloud said, shaking his head and grinning. "I will."  
  
  
"Hurry up!" Reno said, and pushed Yuffie ahead.  
  
Yuffie grumbled and muttered something under her breath in wutain that, even if Reno could translate what she was saying, woulndn't have come out clear enough to be understood.  
  
Rude sighed and shook his head. "Quit whining both of you.." he mumbled.  
  
Yuffie, on the other hand, didn't really care. She was trying to go as slow as she could, trying to devise a plan so she could spring herself. Sure enough AVALANCHE would help her out on this one too? But...they would of gotten her by now, right? Then... Had they just given up on her? Was she too much of a burden?   
  
She didn't have too much time to think because they had reached Rufus' office. Reno opened the door and quietly stepped in, forcing Yuffie with him, with Rude following them.  
  
"So." Rufus said, bringing his clenched hands up to his chin and resting his elbows against his desk. "This is the Kisaragi? I thought she'd be more...how can I say this...?" he paused, waving his hand in a small circle in the air as if he was trying to fish out the word out of thin air. When he found the world he snapped his fingers. "Elegent!..." Then he paused again, looking slightly disappointed. "But... You're not. What a shame." he said, and laughed harshly. Yuffie glared at him. "I was thinking of a terrific headline for the newspaper!" Then he brought his hands out as if he was putting up the letters on a sign. " 'ELEGENT PRINCESS KISARAGI MURDERED IN DEFENCE AGAINST WUTAI' but.... I gues not..." he said, and chuckled evily, leaning back in his chair.  
  
If Rufus wasn't his boss, Reno would of slapped him silly. 'So what?' he thought to himself. 'It's a girl, duh. She does take care of herself better then some of those bums on the street.'  
  
"What do you want us to do with her, boss?" Elena asked Rufus.  
  
"I want you to keep her captive until nesecary." Rufus said. "But, I also want you to intersect AVALANCHE... And also deliver the message to Lord Godo Kisaragi...." he paused. "Now, how can you all do that at once?" he asked them, as if he didn't know the answer himself.  
  
"We could always take the kid with us." Reno said.  
  
"That could be a problem." Rufus said. "What if she tries to escape?"  
  
"Three against one? Not going to work." Elena said.  
  
Yuffie muttered something about skills and then went back to being silent when she caught Rufus' glare.  
  
"So." Reno started, striding over to Rufus' desk while twirling his nightstick idly. "We go to Wutai and tell Godo Kisaragi, and then leave. Of course, AVALANCHE will be there, so we'll just fight until we see an equal opportunity to leave."  
  
"But what if they try to capture the girl?" Rufus asked, glancing over at Yuffie.  
  
Reno thought for a second.  
  
"We could always make her friends think something else." Rude suggested.  
  
Reno turned to Rude. "Brilliant idea, my stone-faced friend!" he said, his ever-so present smirk returning to his lips.  
  
"But what could that be?" Elena asked, turning to look at him.  
  
"Oh... I think I've got something in mind." Reno said with a twinkle in his eyes.  
  
Yuffie felt uneasy about her whole situation and wondered if she'd ever live through any of this...  
  
  
AVALANCHE were now traveling towards the hidden Mime Materia cave out in Eastern Wutai, but they had to go on foot. There was no way they could land the Highwind anywhere near there. They had to leave it back at the last bridge.  
  
As they were walking, Tifa could notice a strange aura surrounding the area. Everytime she took a step closer to the cave, she could feel it somewhat get stronger. It was like it was telling her to leave that place now and save her own skin.  
  
She quickly shook her head, not wanting to think of the possiblities of what could happen if the aura was right. She looked over at Cloud, who was traveling right beside her. It was like something was wrong with him too. There was a little hint of fear in his eyes, but she couldn't blame him. No one knew what was in that cave.  
  
But what was on the almost top of her thoughts was where Yuffie was. She couldn't help thinking about all the possibilites where she could be. Or what ShinRa could be doing to her. Then the most painful thought brushed through her.  
  
What if Yuffie was already dead...?  
  
Then, without warning, Cloud dropped to his knees. Everyone stopped almost immediantly and turned to stare at him. His hands slowly rose to his ears and he then clutched his head, eyes shut tight as if he was concentrating really hard.  
  
Then he started screaming.  
  
"NO!!!!! STOP!!! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!!" he cried, shaking his head like mad. Tifa looked horror-streaked and she rushed to his side. She tried to pull his hands away from his head, but he pushed her away almost harshly. She fell to the ground beside him and stared at him, praying that he would go back to normal. "NOOOOOO!!!!!!!" Cloud kept screaming, and now he was attempting to rip his spikey hair out.  
  
"CLOUD! STOP!!" Barret yelled, and tried to confront him but Cloud then looked up. His mako-colored eyes were now red and blood-shot. He was extremely angry.  
  
Everyone stepped back. Cloud got up and raised his sword. He looked over to Tifa with murder in his eyes. He walked over to her, and then prepared to slash down. Before he could, though, Red jumped and pinned him down.  
  
"Cloud, snap out of it!" Red said, trying to keep the struggling ex-SOLDIER from killing Tifa. But soon Cloud's struggles diminished, and then he stopped. He opened his eyes again, and they were back to the soft, mako-color as usual.  
  
"Oh...my...god..."He moaned. He reached his hand to his forehead and tried to recollect what had just happened. Red got off of him, still unsure though, and stepped back. Cloud then stood up and put his sword away. He looked over at the others.  
  
"Oh, no.." Reeve began. He knew damn straight what had just happened.  
  
"Sephiroth..." Cloud began, but he couldn't finish. He was too weak to go on with his sentence.  
  
"Hush, Cloud." Tifa said. "We'll find out what's in that cave. You can stay here."  
  
"No! I'm comming!" Cloud protested.  
  
"Fuck no you aren't!!" Cid cursed. "You just fucking tried to kill Tifa!!!"  
  
"But I have to! I want to know what just made me do that!" Cloud tried to reason with them.  
  
"It is most unfortunate of this, but..." Vincent started, walking over to the group. "Let him do as he pleases. He has every right to find out the reason why he was being controlled."  
  
The others hesitated, then nodded their heads in agreement. Then they began again on their tred.  
  
  
They all walked into the cave. It was still its usual yellowish glow, and a dull spot in the glow where the materia used to have been. After they filed into the cave, they all looked around for any changed and what could be of any importance.  
  
But there was nothing.  
  
"That's so strange..." Tifa said, looking around. "I could of sword I felt an evil aura as we walked toward this cave. But now it's gone..."  
  
"Well, what could hat mean?!" Barret asked.  
  
"Even if the aura is gone, I feel like we're all in really grave danger.." Red explained. "Like something's out there.... waiting for the right moment to strike..."  
  
Just then, somehing appeared. The mime materia had just appeared in its original spot, glowing magnificently as if it was never even touched. They all gasped.  
  
"Wait a minute.... THAT's not the mime materia!!" Cid gasped.  
  
He was right. At first it had looked like it, because this materia was clear. It was just illuminating the yellow glow from its surroundings. Then it stopped. All the glowing stopped. The whole cave went dull, with the only light was from either the outside entrance or the deep crevises deep inside the cave.  
  
'Thought I couldn't come back huh?'  
  
"Ack! Did you guys hear that?!" Cloud said, and got into a fighting stance.  
  
Everyone followed his lead and got in their own fighting stances.  
  
"Yeah, I sure as hell heard it!" Barret exclaimed.  
  
'Thought I was dead! Ha! What a laugh! I am a god! YOU CAN NOT KILL A GOD!!!!'  
  
Then the cave walls disappeared. They were now outside again, same place though. The sky's clouds turned dark. A crack of lighting striked the ground far off at a distance in the ocean. It was like the sun had disappeared.  
  
But the crystal-clear materia was still in its place, shining brightly now. It rose up into the air and hung lightly as if it were controlled by puppet strings.  
  
"THAT'S AERIS' MATERIA!!!" Cloud gasped, trying to yell to the others over the great rumble of the thunder and lightning around them. It was now starting to rain heavily. It was then that the strange aura had returned.  
  
It was the ancient's materia, no doubt.  
  
The white materia.  
  
Just then a bolt of raw lightning cracked the materia and then an explosion occured. Everyone had to shield their eyes from the blinding white light the explosion had created.  
  
Then the heat of the light disappeared. Tifa and the others slowly took their hands and arms away from their eyes to peer at what had just happened.  
  
Now, instead of the materia, there was a dark, shadowed figure. One that. by now, most people would rather they had an endless nightmare then to see again. It was just like and endless nightmare, if anything, but this time it was real.  
  
The figure looked up. Cold, mako eyes. Long, silver hair. The most sinister look anyone could ever hold. His cold smile, almost harsh, shone brightly. His eyes twinkled with an evil mirth. His clothing just added the fear. He wore big, white shoulder pads with three holes on each. A long, black cape on his back, and a black trenchcoat with the center cut out, held together by two, X-crossed beltstraps. He also wore big, black leather booths with silver chains as shoelaces. And, in his hand, was the long, six-footed sword. The same weapon that had killed millions of people durring the war. The same weapon that killed so many innocent lives of humans and monsters alike.  
  
The same sword that killed Aeris.  
  
Sephiroth. This was definently Sephiroth. As solid as ever. He was not a hollographic, fake vision, not a ghost, nor spirit. He was real. He had came back to life.  
  
"Sephiroth..." Cloud growled through his gritted teeth. Nobody else had anything to say. Well, of course they did, but, they couldn't find the strength to say anything.  
  
"Surprised?" Sephiroth asked. He raised his arms slightly to show that he could really move, and then he stretched each of his fingers out. "Ah.. yes. It's been almost a year, hasn't it, Cloud?" He then looked down at his masamune, the six-foot long sword. "I was hoping to crash the party. Sorry, but I will destroy ShinRa. I don't need any of your help. But, I'm going to destroy the planet with it! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!" he finished in his maniacal laughter, facing the heavens with his sword drawn up into the air.  
  
"SEPHIROTH!" Cloud yelled angrily. Sephiroth stopped and looked at Cloud curiously, not sure what the sudden outburst meant. "I'll take you with my bare hands! How DARE you come back after all that you've done! Can't you just STAY dead? Well, when I'm finished with you, I'll be sure to let you rot in...hell...forever." he finished, emphasizing the last few words with great dignity.  
  
"I doubt it, shadow." Sephiroth said, smiling evily at his new nick name for Cloud.  
  
Cloud raised his sword threatenly. "Get this through your skull! I. ..AM. ..NOT. ..YOUR. .....SHADOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and with that said, or yelled, he lunged at Sephiroth.  
  
Sephiroth quickly raised his sword in defense, and they both struggled for a few minutes. The rest of AVALANCHE watched in awe, praying silently that Cloud would win. Just then Cloud pushed Sephiroth's sword out of the way with great might, and before he could do anything, Sephiroth lashed out at him. Cloud dodged to the side, and then slashed at Sephiroth. Sephiroth nearly fell over trying to dodge Cloud's sword, and then Cloud raised his sword again, and then, glaring at Sephiroth, he started slicing at him continuously. His omnislash limit break. Sephiroth raised his sword in attempt-defense yet again, but this time he couldn't save himself. Before Cloud could get any more blows to him, he jumped out of the line of fire.  
  
"HAHAHAHAHA! YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF ME, CLOUD STRIFE!" Sephiroth beamed, and then disappeared in a crack of lightning, leaving the AVALANCHE members speachless.  
  
After a long times silence, Reeve spoke up.  
  
"What are we going to do now?" he asked.  
  
"The only thing we can do." Cloud said, looking up and turning towards the direction of Wutai.  
  
"What's that?" Red asked.  
  
"Go to Wutai to warn Godo about ShinRa." Cloud answered. He then turned to tred on to Wutai, and the others got up and followed him. As they walked, the thunder and lightning storm still rumbled in the background, as if there was no end to it.  
  
  
It was another rainy day in the big city. Cars rolled on through the streets, and some of the stores were starting to close. It was around ten o' clock PM, and most of the people were going home. Except for the party animals of the city. Ever since Midgar had been destroyed the city had grown strongly. All of the residents of Midgar found it safter to go to Wutai for home, for it still had a lot of land left to spare. Now, most of the bare, singed land from the war was covered in the northern region. But still, the city DID, afterall, have some faults...  
  
"Damnit! When will it ever stop raining here?!" Reno complained.  
  
"Oh, stop complaining, we're not going to be here long." Elena scolded. "We just have to 'talk' to Lord Godo and then leave."  
  
"Don't forget about the rebels. They'll most likely show up." Reno said.  
  
"Like that'll be much more of a problem." Rude said.  
  
Just then the rain started to pour even harder then ever.  
  
"Okay, let's just get there quick before we all drown!" Yuffie screeched, running to get cover under a nearby booth.  
  
Reno sighed and walked over to her, grabbed her by the wrist, and began to pull her along.  
  
"Hey, wait.." Elena began. They all stopped and turned to look at her.  
  
"Is something wrong?" Rude asked.  
  
"Yes... That's not all Rufus told us to do." Elena answered.  
  
"Damnit! She's right!" Reno said, getting angry. "We have to see how that reactor over by the Mime Materia cave is going... They were supposed to start construction yesterday."  
  
"MORE in the rain?! Gawd...!!" Yuffie whimpered. She hated getting wet.  
  
"Just follow us, brat." Reno said, dragging her along.  
  
"As if I had a choice..." Yuffie muttered. She hated being ordered around.  
  
Then they walked up to a slightly large mansion. It shone elegantly like a holy castle against the lightning's flicker in the background.  
  
"So, this is the Kisaragi manor?" Reno said, turning to Yuffie. "Do you live here too?" he asked.  
  
"No, I live on my own." Yuffie confirmed.  
  
"Ah.. I see. A loner." He observed. "Hate your dad or somethin?" he asked.  
  
"No. We just have...some... differences..."Yuffie said slowly.  
  
Reno snickered. "Come on, let's go inside." he said.  
  
He started off into the manor, followed by the other two turks and dragging along Yuffie, who was now even more persistant than ever to leave. Reno figured she didn't really want to see Godo in a sense that was almost humorly. As they made up their was towards the door, Reno turned back towards Yuffie.  
  
"Okay, brat. I'm going to let you lead us in now. But..." he trailed off, reaching for his nightstick in his pocket and letting go of her wrist with his other hand. "...If you even dare try to sneak away or pull anything funny, you'll get a punishment."  
  
Yuffie gulped silently. They weren't really going to kill her, were they? Well, if they were, then she'd have to do what they told her to. She grumbled and then walked up to the guards, the turks in her wake.  
  
The guards moved aside as she walked in, and also let the turks by, but not without any glares of disgust.  
  
Soon they made it to Godo's quarters. Reno couldn't help notice that the whole manor was so nicely kept. The perfect place for a lord to resign.  
  
Yuffie slowly opened the door Godo's office. Godo looked up immediantly. His jaw almost dropped. Yuffie was covered in so many scrapes and scratches that he was worried about what she had been up to.  
  
"Yuffie... What is it that you want?" Godo asked, putting down the letter he was writing and turning his swivel chair to face her.  
  
Reno stepped forward, and Godo recognized him in an instant.  
  
"SHINRA!!" Godo proclaimed, standing up from his chair.  
  
"Indeed." Reno replied, smirking. Yuffie decided this was her chance, and she then took a couple steps to the side in a run, but Reno lunged and grabbed her by the wrist. He quickly fished out his nightstick and brought it to her temple.  
  
"STOP!! PLEASE STOP!!" Godo pleaded. "What do you want from me?!!" he asked.  
  
"All we want is your country." Reno growled. He then pulled Yuffie against him so she was also facing Godo. He lowered the nighstick to her chest in a better attempt to keep her from escaping. "Let this be a warning. Surrender now, or you'll loose your daughter and we'll have to force another war." replied coldly. Then he ran out of the room, followed by the other turks.  
  
"YUFFIE!!!!" Godo cried. Then he dropped to his knees and did something most people would never see a grown man do. Cried.  
  
  
The turks were now running at top speed towards the exit of the city. It would be a longer trip back because, since the manor was against the Da Chou moutains, and they had to go to the southwestern exit, rather than the southeastern exit that they had came through, so they could catch their helicopter ride back to Neo Midgar.  
  
But then a shout rang back behind them. They all stopped short and swirled around, Yuffie being forced to by Reno's strong grip.  
  
"STOP RIGHT THERE, SHINRA!" Barret exclaimed, bringing up his gunarm to fire. The rest of AVALANCHE were with him, including Reeve also.  
  
"So, I knew you guys would show up." Reno said calmly.  
  
"LET HER GO!!!" Tifa screamed.  
  
"If you even dare try to strike at us then you might as well say bye to your friend!" Elena exclaimed.  
  
"What do you mean?!" Cloud asked.  
  
Then Reno grabbed Yuffie so her back was facing him yet again against his chest, his nightstick raised to her chest, finger hovering over a button. Then AVALANCHE went silent.  
  
"You wouldn't fucking dare!!" Cid proclaimed.  
  
"Wanna bet?" Reno questioned. Then he pressed one of the buttons and soon enough Yuffie felt a large, long, ever-lasting jolt of electricity surging through her. She screamed in pain as Reno kept his finger on the button, not letting go.  
  
"STOP STOP STOP STOP OH MY GOD STOP!!!" Tifa cried.  
  
Reno let go of the button and Yuffie fell limply into his arms. He wasn't smirking when he looked at her. Rude and Elena noticed as well as the others that it looked like not even he liked what he just did. 'Of course, why would I want to do that??' Reno thought to himself. 'I gotta stop shocking her or I'll waste such a perfect body. Heh heh..'  
  
AVALANCHE could only stare at them. Then Cloud stepped forward.  
  
"What are you going to do with her??" he asked.  
  
"Well, it's not like this wasn't her plan." Reno replied.  
  
"...What do you mean?" Cloud asked, hesitently.  
  
"It was her idea as part of a plan." Reno said. "Surely I wouldn't do that on PURPOSE to another...." he trailed off, looked over to his other comrades, then down at Yuffie, then back to AVALANCHE with his smirk now restored. "...Turk?" he finished.  
  
If it was possible, all of AVALANCHE's jaws would of dropped.  
  
"You can't be serious!!" Reeve exclaimed. "Rufus would never--"  
  
"IT'S PRESIDENT TO YOU!" Elena exclaimed.  
  
"And yes, he would." Reno said. "You see, with all of her ninja and stealing skills, she'd be almost perfect for the job." he paused for a moment. "Like age is really a problem?" he asked.  
  
"You monsters..." Vincent said coldly, giving no mercy in his words. "Turning a completely innocent girl into another one of ShinRa's toys..."  
  
"Hell, she asked for it. So be it." Reno said.  
  
"SHE'D NEVER ASK TO BE A PART OF YOU DAMN SHINRA!!!!" Barret uproared.  
  
"Well, that's what you think." Reno said. Just then a helicopter lowered down towards them on the rainy street. Elena and Rude climbed on the rope latter up to the helicopter. Reno took one glance at AVALANCHE, and then carried Yuffie up to the copter with great agility using one hand on the rope.  
  
Cid cursed.  
  
"Well, how are we going to break it to Godo that his daughter switched sides?" Red asked.  
  
"Shit..." Barret began.  
  
"You guys. I don't think Yuffie really wanted to go with them." Tifa said. She turned to the others. "I mean...what could of drived her to make such a decision??"  
  
They all paused. There was nothing they wanted to say on the subject. Then they all started to head to the Kisaragi Manor to explain to Godo the news...  
  
  
"Ungh.... Where am I...?" Yuffie asked, openning her eyes, squinting into the darkness. She could make out a blurry, red and blue figure in front of her, looking down at her. Slowly everything came to focus, but the ache in her head didn't. She groaned and stirred weakly, trying to get out of the figure's grasp.  
  
Reno didn't let go. "No no no, you're not going anywhere." Reno said.  
  
Yuffie looked at him questionably.  
  
"Unless you want to jump for your life. We're in a helicopter." Reno finished.  
  
"I would never want to join the turks." Yuffie said. Even though she had lost most of her consiousness, she could still have heard their conversation with AVALANCHE just a few minutes ago.  
  
"Maybe I could make you change your mind?" Reno asked her. Yuffie struggled agian, but he still didn't let go of her.  
  
"Persistent, isn't she?" Rude snickered.  
  
"Shut up..." Yuffie growled. Then she tried to stand up again, but this time a searing pain went through her head and she groaned and sulked back to her former position.  
  
Reno sighed heavily. "Stop it, you're just going to keep hurting yourself." he said.  
  
"Like you'd care?!" Yuffie exclaimed.  
  
"Oh, Yuffie, believe this," Elena said, with an amused look on her face. Reno's head snapped over to her, glaring. "You should of seen the look on his face after he shocked you!" she tried to keep from giggling.  
  
"What do you mean???" Yuffie asked, looking at Elena as if she held the secret to curing the mini virus with an item.  
  
"...Elena..." Reno growled through clenched teeth.  
  
But she didn't stop. "It was if he didn't even want to do it!" She said. "Oooooh! I think he likes you!"  
  
"Elena, that's quite enough." Rude said, glaring at her. Elena then stopped, not wanting to cause any more trouble.  
  
But Yuffie didn't buy it. "Yeah, right. Like I'm going to fall for such a trick." she said.  
  
"Aw, common, Yuff.." Reno said, and pulled her against his chest. Yuffie thought he was going to shock her yet again, but instead she felt his arms wrap around her sides and he lowered his lips to her ear and brushed it. Yuffie immediantly turned red. "It's not a trick..." he whispered into her ear. Just then Yuffie jerked away and across the helicpter, several feet away from Reno.  
  
The others snickered silenlty. Yuffie made no eye contact whatsoever with Reno for the remainder of the ride.  
  
~~~~  
Eeek! People are actually reading my stories! THANK YOU!!!!! Oh, and please, please, PLEASE read and review! I wanna know what people think about this! Thanx! ~Yuffie-Chan/MousieChan  
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	6. Chapter Five~Sephiroth's Shadow~

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Hi! I'm back with a new chapter! ^^ I got so many new ideas now, so I'll be, hopefully, getting them done more faster then usual. Plus I gotta lot of friends IRL urging me to do so (I.E: Kaycie and Tillinie ;) Sooo.... I hope you guys out there like chapter 5! PLEASE Read and Review! *begs*  
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Chapter Five  
  
  
"So... They're gone." Tifa said, looking bummed.  
  
"Don't worry, we'll see them again, sometime soon." Cloud said, putting a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. Tifa looked back up to him and smiled.  
  
"Spike, stop getting so over confident." a voice said from beind.  
  
They both turned around to see the smoking pilot taking a drag from his cig as usual.  
  
"What do you mean, Cid?" Tifa asked.  
  
"Damn, we don't even know where the fuck the damn kid is. We don't even know if she's really on our side. Hell, what if what red head said was true?" Cid tried to explain.  
  
"Are you saying Yuffie's a traitor??" Tifa shot, standing up. Cloud quickly restrained her.  
  
"Could of fooled ya? I thought you'd at least suspect it." Cid replied.  
  
"Hey! I think I speak for everyone when I say this, but just because she stole something of ours in the past, doesn't mean we can't trust her!" Cloud said, standing up himself.  
  
"What kind of point are you trying to make, Spike?! What about what she said back then?!" Cid declared.  
  
Cloud and Tifa both thought for a moment to think about what he was getting at...  
  
  
"Yuffie... You're not...!!" Tifa had exclaimed.  
  
"I don't know! I have nothing to do with this one!" Yuffie shot back.  
  
"THIS one?! What do you mean, THIS one?!" Tifa glared. "So you WERE trying to pull something off!!!"  
  
"No... um... uhh..." Yuffie stammered, and then the soldiers decided to attack. Yuffie quickly got out of the line of fire and darted out of eye sight before they could defeat the guards...  
  
  
"But she had stolen our materia!" Tifa said. "She wasn't going to do anything else!"  
  
"How are you so damn sure?!" Cid exclaimed. "She was plotting something all along! The damn kid knew this was gunna happen!!!"  
  
"Yet she stayed with us till the end!" Cloud yelled back. "Why the hell would she stay with us... Even when we were fighting Sephiroth in the crater?! If she had died, then this plan would of never worked out! Not even YUFFIE would go that far! Hell, not even RENO or RUFUS would!"  
  
Cid was silent, and he looked at the ground, scratching his head, trying to think of another comeback.  
  
"Damn you, Spike." Cid muttered.  
  
"Well, what we have to figure out now is what Sephiroth's going to do." Cloud said. "He's our bigger threat."  
  
"Yeh right." Cid agreed. "We can take care of the other boys later! Heh heh."  
  
"Hey... Captain!" One of the crewmen asked. They didn't even notice him enter the infirmary. They all jumped at the noise, but then relieved when they saw who it was.  
  
"What the fuck do you want?!" Cid exclaimed.  
  
"Um, sir! You might want to see this! The others are watching it right now as we speak!" the crewmember said, and then darted off.  
  
"What the hell...?" Cid began, but Cloud and Tifa were already walking past him. He joined in the line and they all started heading up to the deck to see what was going on.  
  
In the room next to the pilot's station, the others were gathered, watching something on the television.  
  
But the report sure wasn't that pleasant, either!  
  
"A series of reports have said that mysterious dragons have appeared and are causing havoc all over the earth. Most witnesses declare that they're the same monsters who attacked just a few short months ago!" the reporter on the news station said.  
  
"No.. It can't be..." Tifa began.  
  
"Believe it." Barret said grimly.  
  
"WEAPON...." Vincent said in a gaze at the tv screen, which was now occupied with footage of the Ultimate WEAPON marching along the bay near Mideel.  
  
"WELL COME ON, WE HAVE TO STOP THEM IMMEDIANTLY!" Reeve warned.  
  
"That would be the most main idea." Red said, flicking his tail in an annoyed posture.  
  
"Gotcha. Okay, team! Our new mission, destroy the WEAPONs!" Cloud declared.  
  
"Right on!" they all answered, except for Vincent and Red.  
  
"OKAY WHIMPS, OUR NEXT DESTINATION IS MIDEEL!" Cid hollored back to the crew members. "GET 'ER MOVIN! WE DON'T HAVE THAT MUCH FUCKING TIME ALL RIGHT?!!!??!!!"  
  
An uproar began in the airship as everyone prepared for the trip to Mideel. That was almost all the way across the world, but it didn't matter. This was war.  
  
  
"Cloud. We can't find anything." Red said, looking around and sniffing the air.  
  
"Oh come on, don't give up." Cloud said. "It's probably hiding."  
  
"Wonder why." Barret mused, amused with the ideas of it either being afraid of them, or actually being out to kill them because the planet thought they were the cause.  
  
"Oh hush, Barret." Tifa scolded. Barret looked critically back her, then continued to scan the hillsides.  
  
Then Red growled under his breath.  
  
Everyone turned to him slowly.  
  
"Red... Please tell you've found the WEAPON and that it isn't that far away..." Tifa pleaded.  
  
"Yes, I think I have found it. But it's not that far away, either." Red replied, looking sternly in the direction of the ocean.  
  
Everyone averted their gazes to the ocean also.  
  
Cid, of course, didn't seem pleased at how calm Red was.  
  
"How the fuck can you be so calm?!" Cid asked.  
  
"I guess I've just never seen then urge to show my whimpness." Red replied with a sly grin.  
  
Cid just cursed under his breath.  
  
Just then Red jolted.  
  
"Watch out!!!" Cloud exclaimed, bringing out his sword.  
  
Everyone got in their respective fighting stances and also took notice in the huge dragon ripping itself slowly out of the water.  
  
It was definently not ULTIMATE... But a different one. One they had never seen before. This one was green colored.  
  
"What the hell is that thing?!" Barret cursed.  
  
"EMERALD WEAPON!" Red warned. "IT'S ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS!!! WATCH OUT!"  
  
As soon as it had lifted itself out of the water, the WEAPON starting shooting its own beam cannons at them. Cloud was beginning to wonder if they had tooken lessons from Goku or Vegeta from that show he always watched, Dragon Ball Z.  
  
"Why does every monster we encounter HAVE to have energy beams?!" Reeve whined, darting out of the way of a near by energy beam as it collided with the ground.  
  
"Just the way life works!" Vincent said, taking time to aim a couple of fire bullets at Emerald.  
  
Emerald was taken aback from the fire blows. It was clearly water elemential based.  
  
"Everyone! I think Vincent got something!" Tifa called out to the others. "It's weakness is fire!"  
  
As soon as she had finished, the others started hitting it with all the fire spells and weapons and items they had, arranging from the Fire3 spell to throwing the Flame Staff weapon at Emerald. Vincent just kept repeating his fire shots at the huge dragon to keep it distracted as everyone else beamed it with their fire materia.  
  
"EVERYONE POWER UP YOUR LIMIT BREAKS WHILE IT'S STILL WEAK!" Cloud shouted. They all mumbled in approval and then they all began to think about anything that made them angry to gain the energy for the limit breaks.  
  
"BIG SHOT!" Barret yelled, and powered up a giant, super-sized bullet at the end of his gun arm, and exploded it at the WEAPON.  
  
"Finaaallllllll.... HEAVEN!" Tifa declared as she punched a nice, big fire blast with her fist at Emerald.  
  
Cid flipped his spear and whistled upwards, waving his hand towards the others. Then out of nowhere, the Highwind came into view to make a drop. It let loose six different missles on the WEAPON and then zoomed out of sight before they could get hit.  
  
Reeve concentrated, and then he brought out a controller out of his jacket. As soon as he had fired it up, and old friend of everyone's appeared. Reeve's puppet, Cait Sith.  
  
While little Cait was shouting orders to its mog through his megaphone, Vincent transformed into his beast form, Chaos, and then threw a long chain of deadly skulls and spirits at Emerald WEAPON.  
  
Red looked up to the sky and howled. Even though it was broad daylight, the moon appeared and the night grew dark. Red jumped up into the sky and his paws glowed with fire, and then he let loose his Cosmo Memory limit break and left Emerald WEAPON in a firey pursuit.  
  
Then Cait Sith pulled out his miniture, magical slot machine and spun it. Then Mog grew to the size of WEAPON and started a large, titanic battle between them.  
  
Everyone watched as the two titans exchanged fists and blasts. Finally Mog had done all it could and it shrunk back to normal size. Reeve pressed a button on the controller and Cait waved before disappearing with his mog again into thin air.  
  
Cloud's sword glowed, and he charged at the WEAPON in an onslaught, and then he set a large set of crucial blows with his huge sword into the WEAPON's tough, leathery skin. But nothing could withstand the Ultima Weapon that Cloud held, and green blood fell from the WEAPON as it shreiked in agony. Cloud then jumped up with amazing agility from its foot, to its knee, to its elbow, and to its shoulder, and, finally, its head. He then jumped up once more and slashed it with a finishing blow, causing it to let out one last cry. Cloud quickly darted back to the others to see what would happen next.  
  
Screaming, Emerald WEAPON sunk back into the deep ocean below, and finally disappearing from sight. Everyone watched its shadow in the water as it slipped outwards and below, until they couldn't make it visible no more.  
  
They all relieved when they sought the danger was over, and healed any wounds they had gotten from the first barage of beams.  
  
"Well, that oughta keep out of our hair." Cloud said. Then he paused as everyone turned to look at him as if he had just pulled off a murder. "...Er, for now."  
  
"So, what do we do now, Cloud?" Tifa asked.  
  
"Dunno. But let's go check out Kalm to see if everyone's all right. We DID see Ultimate WEAPON still at large, and last time it was around, it was flying over around that area." Cloud replied.  
  
Everyone nodded.  
  
"Well, let's go." Cid muttered, and they all ambled off towards the Highwind again for the trip to Kalm.  
  
  
"Daddy! You're home!!!" Marlene cheered and she ran into Barret's arms.  
  
Barret chuckled and ruffled her hair. "Let's see... How old are you now? Twenty four? Nineteen?" he asked.  
  
"You know how old I am!" Marlene teased. "I'm six years old! I'm a real lady!"  
  
"That's what I thought!" Barret said, and then led Marlene off to Elmyra's house. Everyone else followed in silence.  
  
They entered the little house with awe. Elmyra certainly was a nice housekeeper, and a grand decorator at that. But of course, who else would of taught Aeris?  
  
The house was literally almost covered in flowers, of all colors. Tifa and the others noticed a picture of Aeris and Elmyra on a stand by the fireplace, and was happy to at least see her face in a photograph.  
  
'What a sight for sore eyes.' Tifa thougth with a smile.  
  
"Welcome home." Elmyra greeted them all. Then she turned to Barret, and gave him a critical look. "About time you guys came back for a check in. Your daughter was getting pretty worried and upset!" then she looked down to Marlene. "Weren't you?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.  
  
"Of course I was!" Marlene replied, immitating Elmyra's gesture and glaring at her father.  
  
Barret grinned. "Hey! Don't blame me! I'm just trying to save the world you kids are gunna run one of these days!" he tried reasoning.  
  
"Well then, why can't I come along?" Marlene asked.  
  
"Because." Barret said, kneeling down to talk to her face to face. "If you should come, and were to get hurt, I don't know what I'd do to myself!"  
  
"Awww..." Marlene began. "I didn't mean to make daddy cry! I'm sorry!"  
  
"It's okay!" Barret said. "I'm not crying!"  
  
Cid snickered silently. Barret glared back at him, and Elmyra laughed softly.  
  
"Hey..." Marlene began, looking over Barret's shoulder at the rest of the group. "Where's Auntie Yuffie???"  
  
Everyone looked at each other uneasily. Should they tell her that Yuffie was a traitor? What if the Turks came by and decided to hold her for ransom? She would need that bit of information just in case. But... How she would take it was the main question.  
  
"Marlene... There's something we have to tell you." Cloud said, stepping up. But Barret immediantly held up a hand. Cloud nodded back to him, and Barret continued Cloud's statement.  
  
"Marlene, if you see Yuffie, run." Barret said. Marlene looked concerned, and mouthed out the word, 'why?' but no words came out. "Because, she's with the Turks. Even if they're not with her, get out of there. She could be bait or even worse, working for them on her own, free will."  
  
"Why is Yuffie with the Turks??" Elmyra asked.  
  
"We don't know. Reno said she did it on her own free will, but then again, he might be lyin'." Barret said.  
  
"And, of course, the brat has been known to be a traitor before." Cid said slowly.  
  
"But what about me?" Reeve asked. "I don't hear you guys griping about ME all the time!"  
  
"Because you came through for us in the end." Cid replied, not bothering to look back at him.  
  
"But Yuffie was also in the fight against Sephiroth WITH us..." Reeve began.  
  
"Let's not start THIS again!" Cid said. Reeve looked at him with an odd expression on his face, and Tifa just giggled.  
  
"You guys, we might want to think about leaving soon." Cloud said.  
  
They all turned to him.  
  
"Come on, spike! Let's just spend the night here and continue on with things tomarrow morning." Barret said.  
  
Cid glared at Barret for taking his nickname for Cloud, but Barret paid no attention to it.  
  
"Hey, daddy!" Marlene said, getting Barret's attention. "I wanna show you a new song that Elmyra tought me on the piano today!" and with that, she dragged him to the ajoined room where the piano was held.  
  
"My, you all can't fit in this tiny house." Elmyra said worridly.  
  
"Don't worry." Cloud said. "We're going to stay in the inn down the street."  
  
"Okay." Elmyra said with a laugh. "See you tomarrow morning. I'll be making pancakes."  
  
"No problem!" Tifa said, and they walked out of the house and towards the inn.  
  
"I wonder what Yuffie's doing?" Red asked them as they walked.  
  
"More or less, what's ShinRa doing to her?" Reeve corrected.  
  
"Well, whatever is going on, I hope she's okay." Tifa said.  
  
"Yeah, so do I. I sort of miss the little squirt." Cid said, taking in a drag of his cig.  
  
  
Yuffie was sitting in her dorm... er, jail cell, in the ShinRa building. This had been her new room for the past week, and Yuffie was getting pretty bored of the musty smell that always hung in the air. The sheetrock that showed through the plain, white, wallpaper was also a sign that the building had certainly seen better days.  
  
But something then intersected her thoughts. The door started to creek open. Yuffie's head snapped up and she glared at the doorway as Reno walked into the room. She made no eye contact with him as he sat down on the bed next to her.  
  
"Hey.." He said, looking over to her. "What's up with you?" he asked.  
  
"I want to go home." Yuffie plainly answered.  
  
Reno sighed heavily. "Well, you can't everything you want." he said.  
  
"Yes I can." Yuffie replied.  
  
"Well... I'm sorry, PRINCESS, but that's just the way this world works!" Reno said, taunting her.  
  
Yuffie glared up at him. "Leave this room now or so help me, I'll tear you limb from limb!" she threatened.  
  
"Ooooh! I'm shaking in my boots!" Reno shot back, mockshivering. "Come on, can't you actually pull off your threats? You're nothing but talk!"  
  
"Wanna bet, you stupid jerk!" Yuffie declared, and lunged out at him with her fist. Reno quickly got up and evaded the punch, looking down at her agian. Yuffie immediantly got up and lunged at him again. He stopped her fist from colliding with his face by grabbing it.  
  
'Gawd damnit!! His grip is too strong!' Yuffie thought as she tried to get free. Reno brought her fist up with his, and then began to twist around, making her fall head over heels on to the ground.  
  
"Pretty weak for a ninja if ya ask me." Reno said, glowering down at her. She looked back up at him, glaring. He kneeled down to her, so his nose was only an inch from her own. He slowly grabbed her shoulders and looked at her menacingly. "Without your damn conformer, you can't fight." he said coldly.  
  
Yuffie looked angrily at him. "I can still kick your ass, even without that weapon." she said.  
  
"Look who's got who." Reno said. Yuffie stayed quiet. Reno smirked, and pulled her closer until their noses were practically touching. "You're too weak to be calling yourself a ninja. How DID you think you were going to survive with AVALANCHE against Sephiroth? Just by your luck?" he asked. Yuffie didn't reply. Then Reno pulled away and stood up, looking down at her. "Well, kid, ya got a lotta luck if ya got yerself stuck in this joint." He said, sarcastically.  
  
Yuffie stood up immediantly. At first Reno thought she was going to attack him, but instead she walked over towards the door.  
  
"Nuh-uh!" Reno began, and grabbed her by the shoulder. She turned to face him, not too pleased. "Don't think it'd be good to trust you going out all by yourself!" he said.  
  
"Leave me alone, Reno." Yuffie said, and walked on ahead. Reno followed her all the way, wondering where she was intending on going.  
  
Yuffie peered around a corner, and then, cautiously, moved on. Reno raised an eyebrow, wondering why she was sneeking around if he was with her. Then it appeared to him that she might not know he was still following her. He crept back into the shadows and followed her silently.  
  
'Good, he finally left me alone.' Yuffie thought. 'What a jerk... But still hot as hell...'  
  
She looked both ways. No one in sight. Yuffie then made her move and darted across the open hallway to her next hiding place behind a stack of crates.  
  
'I need to find a way out of here....' That's when she heard something. She whirled around and saw Reno's aquamarine, mako eyes glowing in the darkness beyond her. She screeched and lept back in fright. Then she grumbled when she saw who it was.  
  
"Damnit, Reno! Stop following me!" She hissed.  
  
"Not a chance, brat." Reno said, standing up and folding his arms. "You'd take any chance to get out of here... Though I don't blame you."  
  
Yuffie quirked an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?" she asked.  
  
Reno didn't answer, but simply offered to help her up. She took his hand and stood up.  
  
"Well?" Yuffie asked.  
  
"Listen, I'm not opening up to just anyone. And I won't tell you this, if anyone!" Reno said, and grabbed her wrist. He then started to half drag her back into the direction of her old dorm.  
  
Yuffie grabbed his hand with her free one and tried to pull free. Reno then tried to seize this hand also, but Yuffie soon squirmed out of his grasp, and scrambled away from his as fast as possible.  
  
"Hey! Damn brat!" Reno cursed. Then he ran after Yuffie. "Get back here!" he yelled after her.  
  
'Shit.' Yuffie thought. 'I gotta loose him!' and then she took a left. Reno's footsteps could be heard behind her, and he was getting nearer. He had certainly had better training for this sort of thing than she had.  
  
She took a right. Then a left. Right. Left. Left. And pretty soon she just started taking random turns, having no idea where she was going. And she also began to loose track of the turns she had first tooken, and was completely lost.  
  
Then she came to a four-way intersection. "Damn..." Yuffie muttered under her breath. "Which way?" she looked at her three options. Then she decided to just go straight. This hallway was very long and had about a hundred or so doors on either side. But it also didn't look like it would stop any time soon.  
  
Then she heard a crash behind her. And then a buzz of electricity...  
  
'Oh...shit...' Yuffie thought as she turned around in fright.  
  
Another crackle of lightning hit the corner and just after it had cleared, Reno ran around the corner and then stopped and stared at Yuffie.  
  
"Damn, and I thought *I* was lost..." Yuffie muttered.  
  
Reno held up his nightstick defensively. "Yuff, I don't want to have to do this, but if forced to, I will." he said slowly.  
  
"LEAVE ME ALONE AND GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!" Yuffie screamed, and then she powered up for her All Creation limit break. But before she could do anything, Reno stepped forward and pushed the button on his night stick. Enough electricity came out so that she was stunned. Yuffie crumpled to the ground and looked in the direction her eyes were fixed. Up.  
  
She couldn't move any of her muscles. This had never happened to her before. What the hell did he do to her?  
  
"Yuff, don't worry, I just stunned you. I'll have to get you back to your dorm or Rufus will kick my ass." Reno said, stepping into her viewline and looking down at her with hurt eyes.  
  
'Why the hell does he have that look on his face...?' Yuffie thought. 'He shouldn't care. He's supposed to be merciless!'  
  
Reno then kneeled down and swung Yuffie over his shoulder and began to carry her back to the jail cells. He winced when he heard her whimper, "I wanna go home...please take me back home..." but kept going, knowing all too well what the consequences were going to be for Reeve, let alone him if he dared to let Yuffie escape the ShinRa Tower alive.  
  
"Yuff... This isn't my fault..." Reno tried to say, but it came out mostly wordless, though his mouth said the words.  
  
As soon as he reached the prison cells, Rufus' voice came over the intercom. Reno looked up at the sound of his boss and wondered if he had any new orders for them.  
  
"This is Rufus... Turks, get up here in the office with the girl immediantly, I've got new orders for you. That is all."  
  
Then the intercom announcment ended. Reno looked over to Yuffie, who was looking at him from his shoulder, with a scared look on her face.  
  
"What is going to do with me this time...?" she asked him.  
  
"Dunno." Reno answered. "Let's go find out, shall we?" and then he set her down, took hold of her wrist, and dragged her along to the elevator.   
  
  
"NOOO!!! FATHER!!!!" Tifa screamed. She ran to her father's side and held his limp body, sobbing. When she heard footsteps leading away, she looked up, glaring at the black caped man with pure malice in her eyes.  
  
"I can't believe you!" Tifa declared. "Murderer!"  
  
But he did not respond. He kept walking away, towards the Nibelheim moutains.  
  
She was fed up with it, she had to put a stop to this before something bad even began. As if it could get much worse, she thought. She ran back to her house, crying and covering her mouth the whole way to avoid breathing in the smoke of the fire that burned her skin as she walked through. Once she got to her room, she turned around as she heard a big crash. The stairs had gotten so weak from the fire that they had collapsed.  
  
"Shit..." She cursed under her breath. Then she ran to her bed and grabbed her sword. Picking it up, she remember what her trainer, Zangan, had said to her.  
  
"Never give up."  
  
She grew even more angry at the thought of what Sephiroth had done to him. The same thing he had done to her own dad. He had ruthelessly murdered both of them, skewering each with his sword and twisting it slowly, making it as painful as possible, and then, he had let them fall and bleed to death if they weren't already.  
  
Tifa pinned the sword in the strap on her back and kneeled on her bed to her window. She untied the knot as quickly as possible and shook the latch off. Then she threw the windows open and took a fresh gasp of fresh air. Then she saw Cloud going into one of the buildings.  
  
"Good ol' Cloud..." Tifa thought with a smile. "Always trying to help..." But then she thought about what house he had gone in. His own. She frowned at the thought of Mrs. Strife... She wouldn't of survived. There was just no way she could.  
  
Tifa climbed out of her window with a new grown vigor and lept off the roof. Landing softly on the ground, she drew her sword and ran towards the Nibelheim Reactor, not taking any notice at any monsters causing havoc around her...  
  
--FLASH--  
  
She ran up the stairs to Sephiroth, remembering all her training from Zangan, and drew her sword up, tears in her eyes, and before she could strike, he swept up at her with catlike reflexes and dove the sword across her chest and upwards to her chin. The blow sent her flying to the bottom stair, and she watched helplessly as Sephiroth stalked into JENOVA's room. That was where Zack was...  
  
Then, behind her, a SOLDIER entered the room. Tifa looked up at him from her disabled position on the ground. The SOLDIER picked her up and carried her, and then set her down gently out of the line of fire.  
  
"Cloud..." she murmered.  
  
The SOLDIER nodded, and then ran up the stairs, drawing his sword. Then, Zack came flying through the doors of JENOVA's room, blood splurting on the near cells, and he landed on the ground in a big heap. Cloud then ran into the room.  
  
Sephiroth came out, moments later, Cloud trailing right behind him. When they had gotten to the room beyond the room Tifa was in, she could still see them through the doorway. As Sephiroth whirled around at Cloud, Tifa mouthed a single word.  
  
"No..."  
  
And that's when Sephiroth dove his sword right through SOLDIER Cloud Strife's chest...  
  
And just as that happened, it all turned black. And then a face with mako eyes and black, spikey hair shown through the darkness. He replied with one phrase that would change her thoughts about everything that had happened thus far...  
  
"I'm not dead..."  
  
  
Tifa's eyes snapped open immediantly. What a horrible dream. She certainly didn't want to see what she had just seen ever again. But why did Zack say that he wasn't dead? Surely it was just an emphasizing. Her mind was clearly too tired to care. She sat up in her bed in the hotel room she was in. Cloud was sleeping across the room from her in his own bed, and it didn't look like he was having a dream at all.  
  
Tifa sat back down and tried to go to sleep again. But nothing would work. After about another hour, she got up out of her bed, and decided to go do something. Walking across the hall in the quiet hotel, she looked around. Trying to remember where the lobby was, she felt her way through the darkeness, going down three flights of stairs. Finally, she reached it.  
  
The only sign of anything living was the fact that the moon was shining through the huge windows to the side. She was still only on the third floor, and didn't really care how big the hotel was. She took her place in a maroon colored armchair in front of the window and gazed up at the moon bordly. She thought about things. Things she had never even considered. Things about what could happen. Where Yuffie was. What Rufus' next step would be. What Sephiroth would be planning next. If JENOVA was still alive.  
  
But most importantly, why was Zack in her dream?  
  
She was starting to doze off when she heard hissed words from outside in the hall. She perked up immediantly and kept silent, straining her ears to hear every word as possible. This could be valuable information.  
  
"What did Rufus mean by 'threatening'?!" an all-too-familiar voice could be heard.  
  
"Yuff, you know as well as I do. We gotta find AVALANCHE and threaten them with you..." Reno's voice. Definently his voice. The drall could not be mistaken.  
  
"Ugh! Let me go!" Yuffie screeched, but Reno clasped his hand over her mouth.  
  
Then the doors of the lobby swung open. Tifa kept in a position so nobody could see that she was in the chair from their position.  
  
"Yuffie, if you don't shut the hell up I'm going to stun you right here!" Reno hissed, talking to her as if she were a little child. This mad her mad.  
  
Yuffie drew back a hand and slapped him.  
  
"Don't talk to me like that!" she hissed back.  
  
Tifa turned her head and spied on the situation. It was definently Yuffie. Reno grabbed her wrist and shoved it down, looking at her straight in the eye. Then he spoke, in a very slow, and of course, hard tone, "Yuffie... You know I do not want to hurt you so why don't you just STOP while you're ahead!"  
  
"Why don't you want to hurt me?!" Yuffie mocked, but in a more serious tone then intended.  
  
Frusterated, Reno grumbled. But even from where she was, Tifa could hear what he had said.  
  
"Yuff...Please stop! I don't want to hurt you and that's that!"  
  
Yuffie sighed hopelessly.  
  
"I just don't want to do this to them..." she said in a pouting voice.  
  
Tifa then lept out from her position, bringing up one of her fists. Yuffie and Reno stumbled in disbelief and surprise as she had appeared.  
  
"Tifa!" Yuffie said, startled.  
  
"Geh!" Reno said, then cursed under his breath.  
  
"Let her go!" Tifa barked.  
  
"Not a chance!" Reno yelled back.  
  
Tifa then took out a materia and casted bolt on Reno. Reno quickly absorbed the attack, having the electricity as an element, and then prepared to attack her also. Tifa ran up and dove to punch him, but Yuffie dove in the way and took the hit.  
  
"Yuffie! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Tifa exclaimed.  
  
"I don't really know..." Yuffie muttered, glaring back at Reno.  
  
"You keep forgeting!" Reno said. As Tifa dove at him again, he grabbed one of her fists and held it with a very strong grip. Then he said slowly and quietly, almost in a whisper when he was nose to nose with her. "She's one of us."  
  
"ONE OF YOU?! SHE'D NEVER WANT TO BE!!!" Tifa screamed, ripping away from Reno and bringing out an earth materia and casted Quake3 on him. Reno stumbled as the ground under him shook. One of the most biggest weaknesses of Electricity based fighters always included earth magic.  
  
Then Cloud and the others busted through the door to the lobby. Reno and Yuffie whirled to look behind them.  
  
"Yuffie! We don't know what's going on, but I've got one question for you!" Reeve said, stepping in front of all the others. "Are you doing this by force or by your OWN free will?!"  
  
Yuffie thought for a second. Why WAS she doing this...? She looked over at Reno. Was it for him? For herself? To show her dad she wasn't just a goody two-shoes all the time? To show everyone else she wasn't that easy to understand? That she was unique?  
  
"Yuffie. Answer this question." Reeve said in a harsh voice. Yuffie looked up at him. "Now."  
  
"I DON'T KNOW!!!!!" Yuffie screamed and then powered up her All Creation on the group. Tifa watched in horror as her friends got blowed back and across the room, and she dove behind one of the chairs as the blow neared. When she looked up, all of her comrades were sprawled across the floor, trying to get up, and all the furniture, blown apart. The only ones standing were Reno and Yuffie.  
  
Reno slowly lowered his arms from shielding his eyes and looked at the sprawled group, amazed. Yuffie was standing there, heaving in deep breaths, furious.  
  
'She's confused...' Tifa took a guess.  
  
Everyone had gotten up by now, and Tifa walked over to them, not taking an eye off of their enemies.  
  
"We should call Barret over here..." Cloud said. "We need his help."  
  
"Good idea." Reeve said, and then punched in a few numbers in his PHS.  
  
Reno brought up his nightstick and prepared to charge it at the little celluar phone...  
  
  
Ring.... Ring.... Ring....  
  
"What the..?" Barret mumbled. He opened his eyes.  
  
Ring.... Ring.... Ring....  
  
"Damn phone." he grunted and sat on the edge of his bed. He picked up the PHS and answered sleepily, "What is it this time?"  
  
"Barret! Trouble in the hotel! Reno's---*BZZT*" came Reeve's voice, but then all he heard was static.  
  
"Shi'..." Barret began, jumping out of the bed, and swept out the door while grabbing a couple potions and ethers. There was no time to loose...  
  
  
ZZZAAAPPPP!  
  
Reeve's PHS was hit full force. He immediantly dropped it like a hot potatoe and watched it hit the ground. It twitched a couple of times and then lay still.  
  
"Damn..!" he cursed, looking up at Reno.  
  
Reno smirked, lowering his nightstick. "I appear to remember that you have a little death penalty to take care of, eh Reeve?" he asked, his smirk broadening.  
  
"Reno...Don't." Yuffie begged.  
  
Reno looked over to her. 'Damn!' he thought. 'Yuff please don't give me that look!! You're not making it any easier!' and then he thought about it for a second. 'Wait... I won't do it! I'll call the others in for reinforcements so THEY can end up doing it! Good idea, Reno!'  
  
Reno reached into his pocket and got out his own PHS. He dialed in a number and then called Rufus.  
  
"Yeah, er, boss. I'll need some reinforcements. They've outnumbered me... oh.. Oh! Okay." He finished by clicking it off and put it back in his pocket, smirking triumphantly.  
  
"You are a sick man." Cloud snarled. "Calling others to do your dirty work."  
  
Reno lept back. "How do YOU know what I'm planning?!" he exclaimed.  
  
"Us SOLDIERs think alike?" Cloud suggested.  
  
Reno frowned. "Don't you EVER compare me to one of THOSE low-ranking wannabes!" he growled. "Unless YOU want to be electricuted also!"  
  
"You were once a SOLDIER, Reno!" Cloud declared.  
  
"I was NOT!!" Reno refused, bringing up his nightstick.  
  
"Well you had to have started somewhere!" Tifa suggested.  
  
"I was led into being a turk, and that's where I am now!" Reno said. "End of story!" he finished by swiping his hands out in both directions to emphasize his point that the discussion was closed.  
  
But it wasn't.  
  
"Why do you have mako eyes?" Cloud asked slowly.  
  
Reno looked at him in disbelief. Did he really have mako eyes...? No! He was playing a joke on him! He had plain, regular, blue eyes! They weren't mako!  
  
"I do NOT have mako eyes! They're cyan!" Reno refused.  
  
"Hey, Reno? What's wrong?" Cid taunted. "Loosing your cool, hot shot?"  
  
Reno furiated. "TURK LIGHT!!!" he yelled, and blasted them all with a high bold of electricity from his nightstick, concentrated all his energy on the one blow.  
  
But then Barret swept through the door and countered it with his Ultima materia.  
  
Unfortunately, he hit Yuffie also.  
  
Since Reno had magic abosorbing armor on, he wasn't affected as much as Yuffie. She screamed and fell to the floor, holding her chest in pain.  
  
Reno turned and glared at Barret. He was now beyond furious and in the level of almost reaching a fit. His nightstick glowed, and then he casted a new limit break on Barret that they had never seen before.  
  
"SONIC WAVE!!" he screamed as he blasted Barret with a wave of sound drills. So high pitched, that it blew Barret across the room. He ricochaded off the wall and into the maroon colored chair in a position that was probably impossible to make.  
  
As soon as Reno had calmed down, he kneeled down to Yuffie and spoke in her ear. She nodded at each statement he had asked her.  
  
'What are they talking about...?' Tifa wondered.  
  
Reno got up, looking at them, most unpleased. "Yuffie asked why she was hit in the process!" he yelled at Barret as he stood up from the fall.  
  
Barret stumbled, looking at him. "Becuz..." he began. "She's one of you foo's... She can't be trusted any more..."  
  
"What?!" Tifa asked. "She's still our friend! I know it!" she declared, trying to reason with everyone.  
  
"Tifa, I think that's something we'll have to accept. She's not with us anymore." Cloud said. Tifa turned and looked at him, hopelessly.  
  
"That's not true! It can't be!" she argued.  
  
"Oh. It is."  
  
They all turned, including Yuffie and Reno, to the door. There stood Rufus, with Rude and Elena at his sides. Rufus held open his big, white trenchcoat, revealing all of the weapons and ammunition that he had. He dropped the sides of his coat back to their former positions, and drew his three-barrel shot gun and cocked it. He had the most wicked grin that even made Rude and Elena uncomfortable.  
  
"Um... Boss?" Elena asked, tapping on his shoulder. Rufus turned to her, a disgusted look on his face. "What are we going to do... exactly?"  
  
"Oh, you'll find out." Rufus replied, his wicked smile returning to his lips.  
  
"That doesn't sound good..." Rude mumbled, but not even Rufus could hear him.  
  
Rufus turned back to AVALANCHE, grinning. "Oh, I have been waiting for this opportunity for a very, very long time." he said.  
  
Red tensed up. "What are you going to do?!" he growled.  
  
Rufus laughed softly. "How pathetic. You can't stop me. Now, it's time for you to die... I'll start with the torture.." he said.  
  
AVALANCHE looked at him questionably, but Tifa had a feeling about what was going to happen.  
  
Rufus smirked oddly, and then he turned to Reno. "Reno, bring be the girl." he said calmly. Almost too calmly.  
  
Reno hesitated. He looked at the big, three-barrel shot gun in Rufus' hand. 'Oh shit... He can't... He wouldn't!' Reno thought. "Um... sir?" he ventured. Rufus looked at him, puzzled. "If I may ask of something? Why... her?" Reno asked slowly, yet, instead of his usual drawl, in a voice that almost made him seem like he was scared.  
  
"Oh, it's so simple, Reno." Rufus began, "Because she's in our custody." then she grinned again, resting the gun on his shoulder, "And because she's the youngest. They'll feel sooo bad when they find out they were the cause of the little, innocent one's death!" he finished, triumphantly at the ingenious of his plan. He chuckled softly.  
  
Yuffie stepped back, away from Rufus, for she had noticed his gun not that long after he had entered the room. Reno held out his hand and held her wrist softly, giving her a gesture so she wouldn't run.  
  
"No!" Tifa screamed at Rufus. "DON'T!!!"  
  
But, to Rufus' surprise, Reno didn't move to fulfill his demand. Rufus looked at him critically, his smile turning into a frown. "Reno...?" he asked softly, yet dangerously. "Why are you hesitating?"  
  
Reno stood and thought a few moments, and then looked back up at Rufus. His eyes were dangerously glowing, but he didn't care if they showed sign that he was a SOLDIER. "No..." he began in a low growl. "You're not going to have her, you bastard."  
  
Rufus' grin returned to his face and he brought the gun off from his shoulder and let it dangle along with his arm, and rested his other arm on his hip lazily. "Oh?" he asked. "Why not?"  
  
"Because." Rude spoke up, walking over to Reno's side.  
  
Rufus tensed up and gripped his shotgun. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" he yelled at him.  
  
Elena walked over to Reno's other side casually, and then turned to face Rufus. "Giving you the slip." she said calmly.  
  
"WHO'S SIDE ARE YOU ON?!" Rufus yelled, agitated, and then began to rise his gun at them.  
  
Reno looked at Rufus coldly. "I thought YOU would of known..." he began, his lazy drawl returning to his voice. He flicked his nightstick up and rested the tip of it on his shoulder. "All Turks stick together." he stated.  
  
"No matter what." Rude continued, fixing his shades to be exact.  
  
"That's the spirit!" Elena said, triumphantly. "Believe it, carrot-top!" and she pointed at Rufus, emphasizing the last bit that it was being directed at him.  
  
Rufus lowered the gun. And then, through gritted teeth, he growled, "Hand over the girl..."  
  
"No." Reno simply answered, standing his ground.  
  
Then an idea hit Rufus. 'Oh no... He likes her! I know it! I guess Tseng made a mistake by picking him up and presuming, since his life had been tooken away completly, that he wouldn't have any feelings for anyone anymore... Because it looks like he does...'  
  
Then Rufus frowned at Reno. "Reno..." he said slowly and dangerously calmly, "PLEASE don't tell me that... you... like... her..."  
  
Reno looked at him with a smirk. Then he looked at Yuffie, winked, and then turned back to Rufus. "What if I do? What are ya gunna do 'bout it?" he asked.  
  
Yuffie blushed crimson. 'Oh gawd...' she thought.  
  
'He... likes her?!' Tifa thought. 'Is that why...???'  
  
Rufus shot a cold glare over in Tifa's direction. Tifa wasn't that far away, probably only about five feet. "FINE THEN!!" he said, raged. "THEN I'LL START WITH HER!!!" and he lunged at her.  
  
Tifa squeaked and then went to punch at him, but then Rufus blocked, and then he grabbed her around her neck by his free arm, and set the barrel of his shot gun to her temple. Tifa gasped for air, wriggling and trying to get away desperately.  
  
"TIFA!" Cloud yelled, chancing to grab at her, but Rufus yanked her away, backing up across the room and towards the window.  
  
"Don't come any more closer, or I'll shoot..." Rufus grunted, usuing all of his stength to lug Tifa to the window.  
  
"Rufus if you even dare take a shot at her, I swear, I'm going to--" Reno began, but then was cut off.  
  
"TRY AS YOU MIGHT!!" Rufus yelled back at them. "BUT I'LL ALREADY BE DEAD! IT'S ALL CAME DOWN TO THIS! MY ONLY FEAR IS THAT I WON'T DIE, NOW! I WANT TO GIVE YOU AVALANCHE GUYS A LIVING HELL BEFORE I EVER DIE! THAT'S WHY I LIVED THROUGH DIAMOND WEAPON'S BLAST!" he grinned, getting ready to pull the trigger. He returned to his calm voice again. "...Nobody can stop me now."  
  
"That's not true, Rufus!" Reeve argued.  
  
"What if you lived for something else?" Red suggested.  
  
"STOP IT WITH YOUR LIES!!" Rufus yelled back, and then drew back his finger...  
  
"YOU FUCKING BASTARD! YOU CAN'T EVEN TELL HOW YOU SURVIVED!" Cid yelled.  
  
But then a flash came down from the rafters...  
  
Rufus took a chance glance at what it was, but the figure was already upon him. It was a man, no doubt. He grabbed Rufus' gun and threw it out the window, breaking the glass and making the whole thing shatter.  
  
Tifa scrambled away, gasping for air, and then she almost landed on the ground, but Cloud caught her, and spoke comforting words into her ear, kissing her hair softly.  
  
Then a struggle began. Rufus broke free, and then he ran for the window. But then the figure grabbed him by the arm and flunged him with great strength across the room like a rag doll.  
  
"What do you want from me?" Rufus gasped. Then, tears in his eyes, he let out another sentence, "Just let me die, already..."  
  
The figure stepped up to Rufus, and looked down at him pathetically. He then looked up to the other members of AVALANCHE.  
  
"We must leave, now. Before ShinRa gets here." the figure spoke.  
  
"Who are you?" Red asked.  
  
"Just come, hurry!" and then the figure ran out of the room.  
  
Everyone, including the Turks and Yuffie, followed the mysterious figure out of the room. They could already hear sirens and helicopters approaching.  
  
'No...' Cloud thought as they made their escape. He took a glance up at the figure. 'Is it... you?'  
  
'Hey, Cloud!' an old friend had said to him once. 'Let's run off and be mercenaries together! A team!'  
  
'It is...' he confirmed himself. "I can tell..." he mumbled.  
  
"Tell what?" Tifa asked him.  
  
Cloud shook his head. "Nothing..."  
  
  
The figure had led them to a cave, nearby the town of Kalm. They all looked around. It had a stange tint of mako to its walls, so no doubt that it was another mako mine that ShinRa hadn't discovered.  
  
"Who are you?" Cloud asked, stepping forward, and setting Tifa down on one of the rocks. Tifa sat up to a more comfortable position and looked at the figure worridly.  
  
"Cloud... You don't recognize me...?" the figure asked.  
  
'Oh my god!' Tifa thought. 'That voice... From my dream!'  
  
"Zack...?" Cloud ventured a guess.  
  
The figure nodded, and then finally stepped into the light, showing his face. He was older, now. But his black, long, spikey hair still was the same. He wore the same SOLDIER uniform, and had gotten a new sword in the process.  
  
"So... You remember?" Zack asked. Then he eyed Cloud's own sword. Which he knew was his. "And, you've kept my sword in well shape, as to be expected from you." he said with a smile.  
  
"Whoa whoa whoa... whoa!" Barret began, trying to set something straight. "Let me get this.. Zack? Cloud? Isn't that the guy who you went to Nibelheim with? The legendary SOLDIER you've told us about?  
  
Zack smirked. "That's about it." he confirmed. "Sephiroth's shadow."  
  
"Wait..." Reeve began. "Are you with Sephiroth..?"  
  
Zack shook his head. "After he killed my girlfriend?! No way!" he said.  
  
"Girlfriend??" they all asked.  
  
"Cloud...? Do you know anyone named Zack?"  
  
"Aeris." Zack confirmed. "Which is exaclty why I need your help."  
  
"Why?" Cloud asked.  
  
"Aeris... we need her back. She'll know for sure how to put JENOVA away for good." Zack said. They all paused. "I need you guys to help me revive her."  
  
There was a long pause after that.  
  
Cid broke it. "Well! There's no fucking reason why the hell not!" he said.  
  
Zack grinned. "You're quite a lively fellow." he said. "What's your name?"  
  
"The name's Cid. I'm the main pilot around here. Ya wanna go somewhere, by damn I'll get ya there faster than anybody else!" Cid said with swelling pride.  
  
Zack turned to everyone else. "Please, introduce yourselves." he asked.  
  
"Tifa Lockheart." Tifa said. "I'm the tourguide."  
  
"Ah... I remember you." Zack said.  
  
"Red XIII..." Red said. "Just call me Red. But my real name is Nanaki."  
  
"Barret, foo'!" Barret said, raising his gun into the air. "Da whole leader behind all this!"  
  
"Vincent." Vincent said. "Don't ask any questions."  
  
"I'm Reeve. I used to be a part of ShinRa... but..." Reeve hesitated. "I quit."  
  
Zack snickered. Then he turned to the Turks.  
  
"What?" Reno asked.  
  
"What's your names?" Zack asked.  
  
"My name's Reno. Leader of the Turks." Reno answered. "I thought you would of remembered."  
  
"Where's Tseng?" Zack asked.  
  
"Dead." Reno answered back, not showing a bit of intrest in Zack at all.  
  
"Oh... Sorry to hear that..." Zack said, getting the feeling he wasn't wanted.  
  
"My name's Elena." Elena said.  
  
"....Rude." Rude said, not taking participation to say anything more.  
  
Zack then turned to Yuffie.  
  
"Hey.. Aren't you...?" He began.  
  
"What?" Yuffie asked, her eyes going wide with innocence.  
  
"The princess of Wutai?" Zack asked.  
  
"I prefer either the term, 'The Lord's Daughter' or my name, Yuffie Kisaragi." Yuffie said simply, going back to checking her materia.  
  
"Oh." Zack said shortly.  
  
"Zack, how are we going to revive Aeris?" Cloud asked.  
  
"We need the white materia." Zack said.  
  
"But Sephiroth has it." Tifa said worridly.  
  
"Well, it won't be so hard to find him." Zack replied.  
  
Cloud nodded. "Let's start then. The sun's rising and it's a new day." he said.  
  
But then he stopped. He suddenly turned to the Turks. "What are you guys going to do now?" then he directed his attention to Yuffie. "Yuffie, who's side are you on?"  
  
"We have officially been fired." Reno said. "No doubt about it, and Rufus is going to be after us. Of course, since it IS our fault..." he paused. "We can't afford to let you get in the way. They'll be after to kill us. And no doubt, Yuffie as well. And since this is my mess, I'll protect her."  
  
"Then what are you going to do in the meantime?" Cloud asked.  
  
"We'll be a second eye for Sephiroth." Reno explained.  
  
"Wait..." Barret began, looking at them critically. "How do we know we can trust you...?"  
  
"Don't know. You're just going to have to go with your own instincts." Reno replied.  
  
"Well, in that case, you're going to need our PHS number." Reeve said.  
  
Reno nodded. "That would work."  
  
Elena looked worried. "What will Rufus do to us if he finds us?" she asked Reno.  
  
Reno turned to her. "Who knows? Maybe we'll suffer Reeve's old fate also." he answered.  
  
Elena blinked.  
  
After Reeve had given Reno their PHS number, they started to walk out of the cave.  
  
"So, I guess this is it." Cloud said.  
  
"Yeah, see ya, Cloud." Reno said, nodding off to him.  
  
"By the way, the way your eyes glowed.. That proves it." Cloud said with a smirk.  
  
Reno smiled jokingly back at him. "Yeah, I guess it does." and then he started leading the others off across the hilltops, towards the Chocobo Farm.  
  
"Bye, Yuffie." Tifa said.  
  
Yuffie turned to Tifa. She stared at her for a second, and then nodded, smiling. "See ya." she answered, and then went to catch up with the others.  
  
"I hope they know what they're doing." Zack said. "But I have a feeling we'll meet up with them."  
  
"Come on! We gotta get to my Highwind!" Cid complained. "What if it rusted?!" and then he started to amble off towards the other direction where the Highwind could be seen from a distance. Everyone groaned and followed him, not even caring if it actually did rust overnight...  
  
~~~~  
Yeah, how did you like it? Tell me if you want me to type up more... Please review in that lil box! Yeah, that one down there! Thanx~! ~Yuffie-Chan/MousieChan  
~~~~ 


	7. Chapter Six ~No Need For The White Mater...

Chapter Six  
  
  
They were all on the Highwind. Cloud had called another meeting at the infirmary and they had all just gotten there for further instructions on the mission.  
  
"So... Aeris can be ressuructed?" Cloud asked Zack, who was sitting across the table from him. Zack nodded in confirmation. "Are you absolutely sure?" Cloud asked.  
  
"I am. Unless the white materia is destroyed, there is a chance." Zack said.  
  
"Yeah, because Sephiroth revived himself." Tifa suggested.  
  
"No. He didn't." Zack said.  
  
"What? Then who did?" Barret questioned.  
  
"I don't know. Only a loved one could revive an ancient." Zack said.  
  
"But who does SEPHIROTH have a crush on???" Cid asked. "His damn face is enough to make people run away, screaming."  
  
"A lot of people love their own mothers." Red suggested.  
  
They all thought about that.  
  
"Red has a point." Cloud stated. "It was most likely JENOVA..."  
  
"That's why you had a psycho fit before Sephiroth was revived? Because JENOVA was around?" Reeve asked.  
  
Cloud nodded. "Makes the most sense thus far." he said grimly.  
  
"So, where the hell do we go first?" Cid asked.  
  
"Oh, I got an idea." Zack said. They all turned their attention to him. "Might as well start with Icicle Inn."  
  
"Good idea. He's probably trying to get back to the crater, even as we speak." Cloud said.  
  
"But HE doesn't have a fucking airship!" Cid noted with a grin. Everyone else laughed.  
  
"Um... You guys?" Tifa asked. They all looked to her. Then Tifa turned to Zack. "Exactly how can we revive Aeris?" she asked him.  
  
Zack snapped his fingers. "Ya know what? I'll tell you! Okay, so, Aeris has a loved one, which of course, is her boyfriend, which is, of course, me, Zack!" he paused and scratched the back of his head nervously. Then he continued. "Okay, so I get the white materia, with your help, of course, and then we go to her burial place. Her body should still be in the same condition, since she was a. buried in water b. it wasn't much more then a month ago when she died and c. that just doesn't happen to Cetra." he paused a while to make sure everyone was getting what he was saying. "Okay, as I continue, we find her body, and then I use the materia and chant out the command, 'Holy Yell!!' which will bring down the summon, Ange, and he will revive Aeris Gainsbrough!!!" he concluded, standing up and twirling his sword Cloud-style.  
  
"So, that's it?" Red observed. "Seems pretty simple. This should be easy enough to get done in less then a week's time."  
  
"Yeah, all we gotta do is find Sephiroth." Reeve stated.  
  
"At least we're getting somewhere." Vincent said.  
  
"ARRIVING ICICLE INN!" a crew member shouted over the intercom.  
  
"Come on, whimps!" Cid said and ran out to the deck. Everyone followed.  
  
  
Why should I trust you?  
  
Because.  
  
Why?  
  
Because you can.  
  
I can never trust a Midgarian street punk like you!  
  
You've trustded me thus far.  
  
Only because I value my life. Now I have a chance to escape!  
  
Do you really want to?  
  
...  
  
Well?  
  
No...  
  
Why? Why can't you trust me?  
  
One:Because you're nothing but a street punk who only cares about money!  
  
...(Not true...)  
  
Two:I've only stayed with you so far because I had no other choice!  
  
...(You did too...)  
  
Three:Because... I like...you...  
  
You do not.  
  
I do, too. I admit it.  
  
If you like me, then why would you not trust me?  
  
Because... I have my reasons.  
  
Didn't you just name them?  
  
You're apart of the same company that ruined my life!!!  
  
It wasn't supposed to turn out that way, though!  
  
I don't want you to get any closer to me!  
  
Why not?! Can't you see! We're in this together...  
  
Why don't you just go along with your comrades? I'm certain they'd be better company than a stingy little brat, like me.  
  
You're all equal to me as comrades, damnit, why can you even see that?!  
  
Because I don't want you to get any closer to me! That's why!  
  
Why don't you want me to get close to you?! Damnit, I love you...  
  
No... It wasn't supposed to turn out this way...  
  
...?  
  
No... I promised to not love anyone else or get close to anyone ever since...  
  
Since what?  
  
...  
  
Yuff...  
  
Leave me alone! By the time you wake up, I'll be gone!  
  
YUFFIE!! DON'T GO OUT ALONE!!  
  
...............  
  
Yuffie! Get back here!  
  
Why do you care?  
  
  
'I don't really know...' Reno thought. He then instantly snapped awake. What was that? Was that all just a dream? "Oh, shit..." he sat up and looked around. He was still in his tent. They had decided to camp out overnight and then continue in the morning...  
  
He quickly got up out of his sleeping bag and then unzipped his tent. Frantically, he ran to Yuffie's and peered inside. She was gone, along with all of her stuff. The tent was empty except for her sleeping bag and a small pillow.  
  
"Yuffie..." Reno said wordlessly and then ran for the only direction she could of gone. She couldn't of gone south, there was a river there. To the east there was a giant cliff. To the west there was ocean, right after the forest's end. But north...  
  
'She's going to Nibelheim...' Reno thought, and then he sprinted in that direction, not even thinking twice about his actions.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Reno's head spun in the direction of the scream. He was indeed going the right way. That was Yuffie! But how far away was she from him?  
  
'Damn, I hope I'm not too late...' he pleaded. As he ran, he heard her scream again and winced, imagining all the terrible things that could be going on. Then he heard a huge crash from the direction of Yuffie's cries, and then he sped up considerably.  
  
He ran through Nibelheim has quick as possible and was up the moutains in no time. There was a large monster that could barely be visible from behind the moutains.  
  
'Holy shit!' Reno thought. 'That thing's fucking HUGE...!!'  
  
Then he turned the last corner and came face to face with the situation he had been dreading. Yuffie was on her knees, shielding herself from any oncoming blows. In front of her was a huge monster. Almost as tall as Mount Nibel itself. It was like a big, red, mechanical like dragon and it had claws that were half the size of its whole body. Then Reno remembered that he had heard of this monster before. It was one of the WEAPONs! But which one? Since it was red, he guessed there was only option. It was Ruby WEAPON.  
  
"Yuffie!" Reno said and ran to her side, kneeling down to her. The WEAPON watched as if waiting for them to make the first attack. But Reno was too interested in Yuffie's health to give a damn about the WEAPON.  
  
"Yuffie, are you okay??" he asked.  
  
"Yes..." Yuffie gasped. Then she looked up at the WEAPON. Reno followed her gaze. "It just came out of nowhere... I didn't know what to do so I ran... It just attacked me for no reason!"  
  
That was when Ruby had enough of being ignored. It reared up, roaring and then dug its huge claws into the ground. The claws looped into the ground and back up inside the moutain. Then the tips came out right behind Yuffie and Reno, resulting in braking the ledge that they were on. Yuffie screamed and immediantly clung to Reno as he grabbed another nearby ledge. Yuffie started sobbing pitifully.  
  
"We're gunna die we're gunna die we're gunna die..." she whimpered. "We're gunna die all because of some big, ugly, demon red monster that attacks innocent bystander... We're gunna die without a purpose... We're gunna die we're gunna die we're gunna--"  
  
"Yuff! Don't say that!" Reno said through gritted teeth as he tried to pull them back up. It was no use. The ledge was way too small for even just one of them to fi t. Then he noticed it cracked.  
  
Yuffie let out another cry and whimpered, gripped a better hold around Reno's waist, sobbing into his navy blue jacket.  
  
'Huh?' Reno thought. Then he caught something moving out of the corner of his eye. All the sudden a blast hit Ruby WEAPON and out of nowhere Rude and Elena appeared and started hitting it with their strongest summons. Reno looked down at Yuffie. She was way too traumatized to even realize what was going on. 'Damn, she's having a nervous breakdown! I would of thought she'd get some sense like she did back at Da Chou... Wait... We're at least a thousand more feet up then we were back there! Damn!' Then his free hand slipped down to her shorts. Yuffie immediantly looked up at him, puzzled. Then she looked as though she was ready slap him, but thought the better of it and just clung to him tighter.  
  
"What are you doing...???" she wined.  
  
He reached into one of her pockets and began feeling around. Until his hand clenched around a single orb, and in his mind he knew it was the right one. Yuffie's eyes went wide. Reno pulled out Yuffie's Knights Of The Round materia from her pocket and then threw it up into the air.  
  
"EAT THIS, RUBY!!" he shouted at the monster. It turned around, its tail slashing all the moutains in its path, utterly destrooying them, and then it prepared to slice its claws at him again. Reno's eyes flared like they did back in Kalm...  
  
"ULTIMATE END!!!!"  
  
With that, the WEAPON was sucked into the deepness and darkness of Hell as it was given the most fatal blows by the thirteen knights of the round table and, in the end, even King Arthur himself. It appeared and crashed to the ground, shaking the whole world. Then their ledge broke, and Reno and Yuffie went sprawling down towards the ground at least two thousand feet below.  
  
Then the red materia zoomed by Yuffie. She reached out her hand and caught it, stuffing it back into her pocket.  
  
"YUFFIE HOW COULD YOU THINK OF MATERIA IN A TIME LIKE THIS?!!!" Reno exclaimed, not to far behind her in the fall.  
  
Then Yuffie looked down. They were going to hit ground in at least two minutes. It was a slow fall, but they were going pretty damn fast.  
  
"There has to be a way I can get us out of this!" Yuffie gasped to herself, looking around. "I got us into this... If I hadn't of ran off like that then we wouldn't of ran into Ruby!"  
  
That's when Yuffie's eyes changed color. They turned from brown to green.  
  
'Yesss....' Yuffie thought. 'It's happening... This has to work! If dad can do it, then so can I!'  
  
Reno then felt the wind around him starting to slow down. Up above them, Rude and Elena were falling also, and they could feel the same thing.  
  
"What's going on?!" Elena shouted.  
  
Then everything went black.  
  
  
"Have you seen anyone in a black trench coat?" Tifa asked the inn keeper.  
  
"Yes... As far as I can recall..." he answered.  
  
Cloud nodded in victory.  
  
Tifa grinned. "Really?! You have! Did he have silver hair?" she asked. The man nodded. "And a long, lethal looking sword?" The man nodded.  
  
"Sephiroth... that's who he said he was." The inn keeper told them. He scratched his chin and looked up at the ceiling in thought. "'Reckon he said something about this nonsense god being and all. Said he was our new god. A lotta rubbish, I say. Prolly another one of them street hicks from the destroyed Midgar area." then the inn keeper, having given all the information he could, went back to filing through papers.  
  
"So... he has passed through here..." Cloud observed.  
  
Tifa nodded. "We have to go find him!" she said.  
  
"Okay." Cloud said. "We have to find the others first." then he started to leave the inn, but turned back to Tifa once he reached the door. "Teef, find a snowboard rental."  
  
"Huh?" Tifa asked, puzzled. Cloud grinned back at her and left. "Snowboards...?" she mumbled to herself.  
  
"Yeah, you might need those to pass the Great Glacier." the inn keeper added.  
  
"Hmm... Okay." Tifa said. She walked out of the inn and went off in search of snowboards.  
  
As she looked around at the few stores in the Christmas-style town, Tifa wondered why Cloud had never mentioned his trip to the Great Glacier. They had met in the cabin, and Tifa only remembered going there by sled. She stiffled a laugh. 'Perhaps a snowboard would be easier, and yet, faster!' she thought, smiling to herself.  
  
Then she found a store with a big sign "RENTALS" and lit up. She walked over to the rental shop and walked into the door as the bell jingled in the wake of the door. There she found Vincent, Reeve, and Cid standing and looking a few of the snowboards with pictures imprinted on the bottom of them.  
  
Cid was looking at one with a picture of Satan and Death arguing over a game of poker and snickered, taking a deep, long drag of his cig. "Heh, there's your board, Vince." he said with a smirk.  
  
Vincent didn't reply. He was more interested in looking at something else.  
  
Reeve went on about a board with a picture of Scarlett on it and complained. "She doesn't look anything LIKE that up close!" he exclaimed. "She's nothing but an ugly, bitchy slut! No offence if ya like her, though." he said, then shyly went off to about how pogs got popular again all of the sudden.  
  
Cid snickered, interrupting Reeve. Reeve looked at him questionably. "Never thought that you'd have a mouth." Cid said. "I guess it can't be held back if it's about Scarlett."  
  
Reeve laughed. "Yeah, guess not."  
  
"Hey, what are you three doing?" Tifa asked. Cid and Reeve turned to greet her while Vincent still observed the price tags on the different snow boards.  
  
"Just lookin' around." Reeve replied.  
  
"Yeah, besides, without a snowboard, how the fuck are we supposed to get down the Great Glacier? Ya know how fucking steep that is!" Cid said.  
  
Tifa nodded, laughing.  
  
"We'll all be best fitted if we stick to the simpler ones." Vincent said, not taking his eyes off the boards. Everyone turned to look at him.  
  
"Why?" Reeve asked.  
  
"No matter how good the design on the bottoms are, the simpler ones are made with stronger materials and can withstand more than the expensive, flashy ones." Vincent explained.  
  
"Hmm.. Good point." Tifa answered.  
  
Then Cloud came through the door along with Barret and Red. "Okay, everyone, pick a board and then we can start our little journey." Cloud said. It was apparent he still had the board from the last time he took to the slopes of the Great Glacier, and he was already dressed up in his snow attire to go. Tifa giggled. "Huh?" Cloud asked.  
  
"You look so funny with that on!" Tifa laughed.  
  
"I do not!" Cloud said, faking as if he was actually hurt by her words. "Besides, we all have to dress up like this, unless you want to freeze."  
  
"Go ahead and wear it, Spike." Cid said. "I'm keeping my dignity."  
  
"Shut up foo' and wear the damn jacket at least!" Barret said. Cid took notice that Barret was dressed up too and burst out laughing.  
  
"Ugh, I don't see what's the matter with playing it safe." Cloud said, scratching the back of his head.  
  
"I do!" Zack said, walking into the store behind Cloud. Cloud and Barret and Red turned to face him. Immediantly, as if almost on instinct, Zack burst out laughing.  
  
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! Cloud!!!" Zack gasped inbetween laughs. "At least loose the hat! Your spikes are going right through it!"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Cloud looked up and saw what Zack had pointed out. "Eheh...I guess I can't get my reciept for this.." he laughed nervously and took the hat off, or should I say out, of his hair and threw it into a waste despencer.  
  
"Come on, guys." Zack said, gesturing to the Great Glacier and snapping on some goggled and standing up his own snowboard. "Let's get going. Meet ya at the glacier after you buy your equipment!" Before Zack left, he took one last look at Cloud and snickered, then ran out of the door as Cloud chased after him.  
  
  
"Okay guys." Cloud instructed. They had all gathered at the foot of the giant, steep slope. "We are now going to go down this hill. Try and follow my lead, but if we get lost, we won't be able to use our PHS phones due to the extremely cold weather. And besides, it'd be hard to pull a generaly good signal through a snow storm. But if somone gets lost, or seperated from the others, then just head for the cabin. We will all meet up there and then continue up the moutains to the Crater. Then we will climb down in through the whirlwind maze and---"  
  
"Yeah yeah yeah, we've done it before and we were fine!" Cid said.  
  
"Most correct." Red agreed. "Though I do not know how I could manage with a snowboard so I guess I'll just have to figure it out on my own."  
  
"Okay, so, as I've said sooo many times before--" Cloud started, but was interrupted.  
  
"Move out, foo's!!" Barret interjected and then dove down on the slopes below with his snowboard. Everyone else followed, even a griping Cloud, down the steep slopes...  
  
  
"Hmm.. That's odd." Cloud said to himself. He had landed in the heart of the forest. But he was alone. He looked around and frantically called out names, but there were no answers. Then everything around him turned into shadows, except for himself.  
  
"What.... What's happening?!!!" Cloud gasped.  
  
Then a figure appeard in front of him. Cloud glared and immediantly drew his Ultima Weapon.  
  
"Sephiroth..." Cloud said through gritted teeth. "Give me the Whie Materia... Now." he demanded.  
  
"Not a chance, puppet!" Sephiroth declared. "And besides, I don't have it."  
  
"Then who does?!" Cloud asked.  
  
"JENOVA, of course." Sephiroth said.  
  
"Where the hell is she?!" Cloud asked Sephiroth, drawing his sword higher. "Tell me where she is now so I can take the White Materia from her to revive Aeris!"  
  
"Don't talk about our mother like that." Sephiroth said, looking at Cloud in disgust.  
  
"SHE IS NOT MY MOTHER!!! I HAVE A MOM! SHE DIED THOUGH!!" Cloud yelled, about ready to strike at Sephiroth. He took notice to Cloud's anger and drew his masamune. Cloud came forward with his sword, but Sephiroth blocked it using his own. Cloud and Sephiroth came face to face then, and Cloud glared at him. "And you know how she died?" he asked Sephiroth through gritted teeth.  
  
"Oh, do tell me. Explain your fantasies of your dream mother, for I know how much you wish to be just a regular human. You have simply made her up with visions of your mind and your own simularity--" Sephiroth began.  
  
"BECAUSE YOU BURNED HER TO DEATH!! THAT'S WHY!!!!" Cloud screamed, bringing his sword at full force and broke the trance. Sephiroth fell to the ground, outraged.  
  
"How could you beat me?!" Sephiroth exclaimed. "You're nothing but a mere puppet!!"  
  
"I AM NOT A GOD DAMN PUPPET!!" Cloud yelled at Sephiroth.  
  
"Yes you are."  
  
Then everything went back to normal.  
  
Cloud slowly got back up and looked around. Where was everyone???  
  
"Cloud! Cloud!"  
  
A voice! Tifa's! Cloud immediantly turned to the direction her voice came from.  
  
"Cloud!" Tifa exclaimed as she came into view and threw herself into his arms. "I heard screaming! Are you okay??" she asked him, worried.  
  
"Yeah, don't worry." Cloud answered.  
  
There was a long silence.  
  
"It was Sephiroth, wasn't it?" Tifa asked, breaking it.  
  
Cloud nodded. "Yeah..." he said.  
  
Tifa gasped. "What about the others?! What if he's gotten to them, too?!" she asked.  
  
"Shit.." Cloud cursed. Then he ran into the direction his eyes were fixed on, and Tifa followed him relentlessly.  
  
"Cloud! Wait up!" Tifa called.  
  
"No time!" Cloud yelled over his shoulder. "Zack's in grave danger! And he's our only hope of reviving Aeris!!!"  
  
Tifa then sped up with a new found vigor. She really wanted to see Aeris again, and did not want to see the person that saved her perish in front of her very eyes.  
  
They ran out of the woods to see a scene they rather had not. Zack was on his knees, clutching his ears and screaming, and Sephiroth was standing over him with his sword rasied.  
  
"If the puppet can't fulfil my mission, then my shadow will have to do!" Sephiroth declared.  
  
Cloud stepped forward and drew his sword. Sephiroth took no notice in Cloud whatsoever. But then he had a reason to...  
  
"HELL FIRE!!" Cloud shouted and sent Ifrit at Sephiroth. A huge, flaming boulder hit Seprhitoh and he fell, breaking his link with Zack.  
  
Zack unclenched his ears and lifted his head. He looked around, then at Cloud and nodded. "Thanks, bud!" Zack approved. "I owe ya one!"  
  
Cloud smiled back and nodded.  
  
But the threat was not over. Sephiroth slid up with the support of his masamune, and glared back at Cloud, Zack, and Tifa.  
  
"You... will pay.. dearly.. for this..." Sephiroth grunted and then he phased out of the line of fire.  
  
"Zack." Cloud said, turning to him. Zack looked at Cloud questionably. "Are you alirght? What did Sephiroth tell you? And most importantly, what was he trying to make you do?" he asked.  
  
Zack scratched the back of his head. "He was instructing me to... Like, destroy the 'other one'..." Zack paused. "I think he was indicating you."  
  
Cloud sighed. "I knew it. Of course he'd be out, after me." Cloud said.  
  
Tifa looked over to Cloud, then at Zack, then at Cloud again. "Cloud... let's just get out of here and fine the others... please?" she said, breaking the silence.  
  
Cloud nodded. Then he started off to the north direction. Tifa and Zack followed him, silently.  
  
  
They had been walking for hours in the gigantic snow storm. But still, no sign of the others. After she had had enough, Tifa spoke up after Cloud.  
  
"Cloud... are we ever going to find the others?" she asked. Cloud didn't answer. "What if Sephiroth got to them... before we could?"  
  
Cloud still didn't answer. Tifa was about to ask him to answer, to at least say yes and make her happy, but Zack put a hand on her shoulder. Tifa looked back at Zack, puzzled.  
  
"Don't." Zack said. "He's had a rough day as it is."  
  
Tifa nodded. "Yeah, I guess it's better that we not think about it. They're probably waiting for us back at the cabin." she agreed.  
  
Cloud smiled at Tifa's idea. Hell, she could be right. At least that cheered him up a little bit.  
  
"I'm... about...to...collapse..." Tifa groaned a few minutes later.  
  
"Tifa, we're close. I can tell." Cloud reassured her. "Just hold on a little longer."  
  
Tifa nodded, trying to ignore the fact that the bangs of her hair were starting to grow frost. Her teeth were chattering, and the coat she was wearing wasn't nearly enough to keep out the cold that kept trying to get in.  
  
Then her ankle weakened as she took her next step and she fell down to the ground. Cloud knelt down before her and picked her up in his arms and they continued their tred, this time Zack in the lead. He was the only one who seemed that the cold didn't bother.  
  
They kept tredding for another half hour. Tifa had fallen asleep in Cloud's arms, and Zack was just about showing his first sign of weakening. But then they reached the top of a hill and they looked down. Below was a small cabin, with a smoking chimney at the top. Cloud and Zack took notice in the several snowboards placed at the outside of the cabin.  
  
"Well, Teef, you were right." Cloud said, and they tredded downhill to the cabin.  
  
As Zack knocked on the door, Mr. Holzoff came into view. He looked at them and nodded. "Why sure, come in, come in! It's been a while since I've had company. You're friends are waiting!" Zack nodded, and he walked inside, followed by Cloud and Tifa.  
  
Cloud turned to Mr. Holzoff as he closed the door behind him. He smiled at him. "Thanks for you hospitality. If it weren't for you..."  
  
"I know, I know." Mr. Holzoff said, shaking the matter away with his hand. "Now go to the parlor by the fire place! That girl you're holding will catch a cold if you don't!"  
  
Cloud smiled and nodded. He carried Tifa over to the fire place and set her down. Everyone else was there, excluding Yuffie and the Turks, sitting on couches and arm chairs. Mr. Holzoff sat himself in his own chair, and looked at all them with a grin. "So, how goes your travels?" he asked. "Would you mind telling me?"  
  
"Not at all." Cloud answered. "But it's quite a long story."  
  
"I'm all ears." Mr. Holzoff replied.  
  
"Well, since we left your place a couple months ago..." Cloud began, and so he began to tell Mr. Holzoff about his and his friend's travels ever since...  
  
  
The next day, they had all woken up bright and early, and had bid Mr. Holzoff 'goodbye' and they started to head up the Gaea Cliffs. It had been a rough climb, but when they reached the top side of the crater, they all looked down at the whilrwind maze below.  
  
"Well... This is where it starts." Cloud said. "All we have to do is find Sephiroth." he looked over at Cid. "Still got your PHS?" he asked.  
  
Cid nodded. "I wouldn't fucking leave it behind, spike!" he said. "Why?" he asked.  
  
"Because, we need to contact your crew as soon as we get the materia so we can get out of here." Cloud explained.  
  
Cid twitched irritated. "If we could of flied over here how come we fucking went this far on FOOT?!" he outraged.  
  
"No, no no, we couldn't fly over here because there's no place to land. And no place for the rope ladder. But... When we take the materia, then Sephiroth's seal will be broken and we can fly out of here." Cloud tried to explain.  
  
"Damnit, Spike, you're fucking confusing me, but oh well." Cid said, scratching the back of his head.  
  
"Come on. We need to go." Red said. They nodded and then they started to do a run down the edge of the cliff and into the crater.  
  
When they got to the bottom, Cloud noticed something immediantly. The whole place was different than from before. The whirlwind maze had complely stopped once they had stepped down to level with it. 'Almost as if it doesn't want to be around us...' Cloud thought.  
  
"Damn..." Barret cursed. "I don't think somone wants us here..." he said. He loaded his gun-arm with some fresh bullets and prepared for battle.  
  
Then the ground under them began to glow and shake.  
  
"What's going on?!" Tifa exclaimed.  
  
"I don't know...!" Cloud said, trying to keep his footing.  
  
Then the ground completely gave away and they all fell towards the bottom of the crater...  
  
  
PUPPET! RISE!  
  
Cloud's eyes snapped open. "Where am I...?" he groaned.  
  
He looked around. The others were there too, and they were just awakening from their fall.  
  
Then Sephiroth appeared in front of all of them. They all tensed up, ready to fight. But Sephiroth didn't move a muscle.  
  
"Puppets..." Sephiroth began, informing Cloud and Zack. "It is now time! Rise and obey my every command, for I shall become your GOD!" he said, slowly rising his arms him into the air in power.  
  
Cloud and Zack looked at Sephiroth with a disgusted look. But then, slowly, they both started getting up at the same time.  
  
"Cloud!" Reeve exclaimed.  
  
"I can't... move..." Cloud strained, trying to get away from Sephiroth's grasp. "Zack!" he called. "Keep resisting! Don't let Sephiroth get to you!"  
  
"He's too strong.." Zack strained back, and then started walking over to Sephiroth, involuntarily, as if he were a zombie.  
  
"That's it, my shadow..." Sephiroth said, smirking. "Come to me... Fill out my plan for world domination..." he held out a hand to Zack, and Zack mimiced.  
  
"ZACK SNAP OUT OF IT!!" Cloud yelled. "DON'T TAKE HIS HAND!!!!"  
  
Zack blinked, and then he shook his head. He looked at Sephiroth, horror in his eyes, and began to step back, away from him.  
  
"Damn you, puppet..." Sephiroth snarled at Cloud. "I shall kill you first. You are of no use to me, now..." he then full-forced Cloud forward, and Cloud was pulled to his knees by Sephiroth's force, and Sephiroth walked up to Cloud slowly, and began raising his large masamune up and over his back. The sword began to grow to the length of four feet, and then it stopped.  
  
Tifa began to run forward, but Barret caught her by the shoulder. "Cloud!" Tifa cried.  
  
"There's nothing you can do about it..." Barret said, trying to comfort her.  
  
Then something flashed behind Sephiroth. Sephiroth stopped and looked forward, his eyes wide. He dropped his sword onto the floor next to Cloud, and by his distraction, Cloud was able to break free, and he scrambled back to the others. Tifa cried and hugged Cloud like there was no tomarrow. Cloud kept his gaze fixed on Sephiroth the whole time.  
  
Sephiroth checked his pockets, everywhere, but he couldn't seem to find what he was looking for. "DAMNIT!" he cursed. He looked up at the ceiling of the cavern they were in, slowly. He picked up his sword and it went its full length of six feet long, and he then began to draw it back to four feet long, threatenly. "Whoever just STOLE that white materia from is going to DIE right NOW!" he yelled, and then he pulled out a yellow manipulate materia out of his pocket.  
  
Then an electricity bolt caugh Sephiroth. Sephiroth winced, but then he looked back up. He then pulled back his sword, and then he thrust it out again, casting fire on the party that had just attacked him. Four figured fell to the ground before him. Three in navy blue suits and one in a green tank top and kacki shorts.  
  
Sephiroth laughed evily. "Why if it isn't ShinRa's pawns..." he paused, looking at Yuffie, "...and one of my war rival's daughter?" chuckled. "Hey, Yuffie, how's your brother? Oh whoops, I almost forgot, he's dead." he snickered evily.  
  
Yuffie glared back at Sephritoh. "You bastard..." she snarled.  
  
Reno, Rude, and Elena slowly stood up, glaring back at Sephiroth.  
  
Elena was glaring back at Sephiroth with murder in her eyes. "You killed Tseng..." she said menacingly. "Didn't you? It wasn't Cloud, was it?"  
  
Sephiroth nodded. "Yes, I killed your pathetic boss! It was funny, really, he had lasted that long but all in all, like all of you other saps futures, he was killed by ME, your new GOD!" and then he laughed evily, bringing up his sword to Elena. Elena stepped back immediantly.  
  
Cloud then stood up, making Tifa scared, and he started to walk over to Sephiroth with a fixed gaze at him. No emotion whatsoever in his eyes. Only one glint of murder was all that showed. Sehiroth turned his sword to Cloud, and prepared to strike.  
  
"I guess this is our last battle, puppet." Sephiroth said. "It ends here. I might as well bring you out of your misery and put you back in Hojo's scrap pile where you belong."  
  
"Hojo is your dad." Cloud said simply.  
  
"You're insane." Sephiroth snarled back.  
  
"It's true." Cloud replied.  
  
"Then.. according to your records, who is my mother?" Sephiroth asked with a quirked eyebrow.  
  
"Lucrecia." Cloud stated.  
  
"LIES!!!" Sephiroth yelled, bringing up his sword at Cloud. Cloud dived to the side. He quickly got up on his feet and dived at Sephiroth himself, but Sephiroth grabbed Cloud's bulky sword and flung him across the tavern they were in. Cloud got up just as Sephiroth was going at him again, and he responded by rolling to the left. When Sephiroth was down, Cloud took the opportunity to slice him in the shoulder. Sephiroth got back up, raged, and slice at him again. Then they began a sword fight, clashing each others swords but never getting their exact target.  
  
All the while Red was observing the area. He looked up at Cid. "I think we should call your Highwind here." he suggested.  
  
Cid looked at him. "Fuck, where are they gunna go? You can't even see no damn sky." he said.  
  
Red looked up at the ceiling. "That's the top of the crater." he explained. "It's a pretty thin layer, and the Highwind will be able to go through it no problem. Besides, you have those missles."  
  
Cid nodded, taking in a drag of his cig. "Good point. I hope you're fucking right about this, though, because if you aren't, then yer paying for the repairs." he said.  
  
Red chuckled. "Trust me, I know."  
  
Cid then got out his PHS, while watching the fight between Sephiroth and Cloud.  
  
Zack kept the urge from diving in there and giving Sephiroth a piece of his mind. Because, if he did, he'd cause some major trouble. But it didn't look like Cloud would be able to last that much longer...  
  
Just then a barrage of explosions were heard from up above. Sephiroth and Cloud stopped and looked up at the ceiling. It was starting to cave in!!  
  
But in the mist of all the smoke and rock, the Highwin slowly merged downward and into the crater. Cid cursed about a dent in it but then a rope decended from the deck. One by one, they all climbed up, but Sephiroth and Cloud had continued their battle. Zack got onto the airship, taking a glance at Cloud.  
  
"CLOUD!!" he yelled back at him. "GET UP HERE!!!"  
  
Cloud glared back at Sephiroth. They stopped.  
  
"Till we meet again." he said coldly. Sephiroth snickered, and then, without warning, he took a step forward...  
  
It had happened so quickly that nobody was sure what had happened until it was done. Tifa watched in horror, and Zack had to be restrained by Barret and Reeve from jumping back off the deck.  
  
"CLOUD!!!!!" Tifa screamed, trying to reach down to him. But she knew she couldn't.  
  
"Tifa..." Red began. Tifa looked back at him. "Be strong." Red said. Tifa smiled back at him with tears in her eyes. "Cloud escaped his blow once... he can do it again." he reassured her.  
  
Tifa nodded, and looked back at the scen with a new attitude. She glared down at Sephiroth and she got out her cure materia. She silently casted Regen on Cloud and he started glowing a dull color of red.  
  
Sephiroth slipped his sword out of Cloud's gut, and Cloud fell to his knees, clutching his stomache with a pained look.  
  
"Take that, puppet." Sephiroth said.  
  
"You... can't... kill... me..." Cloud groaned, getting up with the support of his Ultima Weapon. Sephiroth gasped.  
  
"Not again!!" he cursed. "HOW CAN YOU WITHSTAND MY BLOWS?!"  
  
"I don't know." Cloud said, and he jumped onto the rope just as the Highwind started to take off. Cloud made his way up to the deck, and was quickly rushed to the infirmary to get his sword wound healed...  
  
  
Help... The planet... It needs me...  
  
Aeris!  
  
Please go to the Ancient City... I know you got the materia...  
  
Don't worry, we're on our way, just stay where you are!  
  
Zack... I want to see you again...  
  
....Aeris....  
  
  
~~~~  
A lil short compared to what I wanted it to be... And I know... I said in the beginning this wasn't a ressuruction fic... But too many people (ahem you know who you are o.o;) have been asking me "When's Aeris comming back??" so... ^^;; But it's not going to be a normal way either... I'm not going to feed off of other people's ideas completely X) Chapter 7 will be out shortly! Please read and review! ~Yuffie-Chan/Mousie/Chuu etc...  
~~~~ 


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